Konoha Campers
by Shadow Dragon Boss
Summary: Kakashi decides to take Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke on a camping trip for team bonding and teamwork building. How will this dysfunctional trip turn out? Rated T just to be safe as the worst of it is mild violence & injury and mild swearing.
1. The announcement

Yo peeps! Here's a Naruto humor/parody fanfic for your enjoyment. Though it's humor/parody, I tried to keep the characters in-character as much as I could while still making this a goofy story. Hopefully you'll find them in character to your satisfaction. Oh yeah, you don't have to read the two notes below, but it may answer a few questions as you read through the story.

Note to Dub Luvers: Now you may notice that I type in "Sakura-chan or "Sasuke-kun", calling "Village Hidden in the Leaves" by the original name "Konoha", or putting the last names before the first names. i.e.; "Hyuuga Neji" instead of putting "Neji" before "Hyuuga", "Neji Hyuuga". This is because I originally wrote this story while I was watching the Naruto series in Japanese, not the dubbed English version. But I am too lazy to go back and change it all, as it is far too troublesome. Or maybe I just want to keep some of the Japanese honourifics and original names in there. You can choose.

Note to Sub Junkies: You'll probably notice Naruto saying "Believe it" like in the dub. Why? Because it's in Naruto's character to say that, and I can put that in this story. I'm not going to make him say "dattebayo". I'm sorry, but that just doesn't really work with an English-written fanfic, in my opinion. Nor am I going to make them speak Japanese, like making them say "hai", "dobe", or "teme" and such. This is an English fanfic, not Japanese. Honourifics are probably enough for this story, and I hope those will satisfy you enough. If you don't like it, just try to ignore it.

So without further ado, let us begin the insanity! I mean, story...

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Too bad..._

It was a very hot summer sunny day in the Village of Konoha. In fact it was so hot that rocks were melting. Heck, even people were melting! Wait. That didn't sound right...eww.

Team 7 had been given a week off in the middle of this die-from-heat stroke time of the year. And at this point in time, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were waiting by the ramen shop. For who? Why, for no other than their beloved sensei, Kakashi, of course. He had called them up to meet him by the ramen shop, as he had something important to tell them.

Naruto threw his arms up in the air "Dammit! Where the hell is Kakashi-sensei? He tells us not to be late, but he's the one who always late!" Naruto stamped the ground in frustration as he had another one of his shouting spaz attacks.

Sakura sighed. "Naruto, you know how he is. He's always late. Besides, it's not like we were doing anything important. It's too hot to do anything else other than lay around and do nothing but sweat."

"But I want to get back to laying around and doing nothing but sweat! It's better than standing around and doing nothing but sweat while waiting for Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto whined.

"What a pathetic past time you have." Sasuke, the ever-brooding Uchiha scowled at the two.

"Oh yeah? And what have you been doing, 'Mr. I'm-so-much-more-resourceful-and-better-than-everyone-else'? Naruto shot back.

"Well...I've been sitting...and thinking quietly I suppose..." Sasuke replied.

"Geez, same thing as us! Ha! Even you can't do anything useful in this heat!"

"Naruto, get off Sasuke's case!" Sakura snapped.

Suddenly, Kakashi appeared in front of them, using that special ninja-poofing/appearing-out-of nowhere-technique-thingy. He raised his hand,saying " Yo."

"You're late!" Naruto and Sakura said at the same time.

"Well you see, this adorable little puppy wasstarving on the side of the road, soI needed to feed it to save its life."

"THAT'S A LIE!" they yelled in unison.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head with his head. "Well, getting to the point, let's step into the ramen shop."

5 minutes later, they were all sipping down their bowls of ramen (well except Kakashi wouldn't take his mask off in front of the others, so he was just sitting and doing nothing with his ramen ...and Naruto was gobbling his down...(by the way, this would be his 3rd bowl of ramen) so technically, only Sakura and Sasuke were sipping downtheir ramen.

Sakura finally spoke up "So why did you call us here, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Oh yes, about that. Well, I thought with all this heat and boredom, we should get out into the wilderness and spend some quality time together while we have this free time the Hokage gave us."

Naruto, Sakura, & Sasuke just stared at their sensei for a moment, unsure of what crazy thing he was planning.

Kakashi continued. "In other words, I have arranged a 4-day camping trip for us! It's just a few hours away from here. We shouldn't have trouble getting there. And we'll cook our own food, have campfires, and do camping-stuff! It's a great way to improve your skills, in case on a future mission you have to camp outside for a night or so and do other things that include survival skills in the wilderness."

Sakura tried to find words for what she had just heard.

Sasuke frowned "...sounds like a load of crap to-"

"Excellent! Let's go! After another bowl of ramen of course!" The ever-excited Naruto cut in.

Kakashi smiled "I'm glad to see you guys are eager. But we can't leave quite yet, not today. We still have-"

"Aww, but why not?" Naruto interrupted.

"I was getting to that. Like I was saying, we still have to plan out our meals, and shop for the food-"

Naruto interrupted once again. "Ooh! Ooh! Can we bring ramen! Can we? Can we? Can-"

Sakura hit him on the head with her fist, shutting the hyperactive boy up. "Shut up, Naruto! Kakashi-sensei is still talking!"

Naruto rubbed his head, moaning in pain.

Kakashi was silent for a moment before he continued "We still need to get a car for transportation too."

"What?" Sakura said, confused.

"Awesome! I've heard of those things, but I've never been in one of them before! This is going to be great, huh, guys?" Naruto shouted, scaring away half the customers out of the ramen shop.

Sasuke scowled "Whatever..."

Note: "Ok, time out!" you say. "A car in the world of ninjas?" But hey, they actually did put things in like electricity, telephone poles, TVs, VCRs, trains, and even trucks in Naruto, so maybe they could have cars. Besides, this is just a stupid humour story I'm writing here, so what do you expect? It could be crazier. Ok, back to the story...

Kakashi spoke up. "Depending how fast we can get the things we need, we may leave tomorrow, or the day after that. I suggest you start packing your things up now, but don't pack too much. I don't know what kind of vehicle I'll be able to get, so there may not be very much space."

Naruto was barely paying attention, picking his nose, while Sakura listened attentively and Sasuke stared off into the horizon.

"So basically, pack clothes, a sleeping bag, and anything else you may need or want that's useful. Don't worry about tents, lanterns, and the gas stove. I'll be bringing those."

Naruto gave out a cheer of excitement. "Alright! Let's go!"

Sakura tensed for a moment as she just thought about something. "I won't get too dirty, will I?"

"If you're paranoid about that, I suppose you can bring soap, a hair brush, and any other grooming things you may want that don't require plugging into walls." Kakashi replied.

"Can we pack now, Kakashi sensei?" Naruto was bouncing on his toes in excitement.

"Yes. Dismissed."

Naruto cheered and took off at the speed of a bullet train toward his place.

Sakura turned to Sasuke "Sasuke-kun! Are you going to pack now? How about I pack with you?"

"No."

"oh, ok. You sure?"

"Yes. I am quite sure."

"Alright..."

Heart-broken, Sakura sulked off towards her house to pack.

"Sasuke, aren't you going to go pack now?" Kakashi asked the grouchy Uchiha boy.

"No. This is pointless. Why are we doing this?"

"Because I explained before, we all need to get out and spend some quality time together, and it-" Kakashi was interrupted

"-will help us with our survival skills in case of future missions. I know." Sasuke finished.

"...Then why did you ask?"

Sasuke sighed angrily. "Never mind that I ever asked. I'm not going!"

"And what other better things do you have to do here? Laying around and doing nothing but sweat?" Kakashi pointed out.

"No...well, yeah. But anything's better than having to spend4dayswith those idiots!" Sasuke huffed.

"They're your team mates, Sasuke. Get used to them. You're going whether you like it or not." Kakashi said sternly.

"Just try and make me!" Sasuke replied, crossing his arms.

"I'd rather not resort to that. But I'm sure Sakura and Naruto will before I do, and I'm sure their methods will be more traumatizing than mine."

Sasuke was silent for a moment before he replied to Kakashi. "Fine. I'll go pack."

Sasuke quickly walked off to his house to pack.

Kakashi smiled satisfyingly,(or did he? As we can't really tell for sure behind that mask.) as he pulled out his book and read his beloved 'Icha Icha Paradise'.

"I win."

_To be continued..._

So how was that? Awesome? Good? Ok? Craptacular? Or just plain crap? I'll accept constructive criticism and flames, whatever. Just please give me a review. It'll make me happy.


	2. The shopping list

Thanks for the **2 **reviews guys. So many reviews!(cough) Ah well, you 2 reviewers officially rock. The rest of you readers, review!

Disclaimer:_ I don't own Naruto, honeycomb cereal, lucky charms, frosted flakes, or any other product that shows up in this story._

After Kakashi's meeting, Naruto was eagerly packing in his room. His sleeping bag, his pillow, clothes, instant ramen packages, magazines, comic books, radio, snacks, and many other useless items that would serve no purpose on a camping trip.

When he was finally finished, Naruto stood back and looked at his backpack.

"Hmm...yep! I think that's enough stuff!" He declared out loud.

His backpack stood, standing up almost as tall as Naruto and taking up almost as much room as his bed took up.

Meanwhile, at Sakura's house, Sakura was humming to herself as she packed her things.

"Oh yes, and this...and this...and this..."

Sakura packed up her hair curlers, hairdryer, nail polish, makeup, teen magazines, shampoo, facial products, and other various useless stuff to bring on a camping trip, because you're just going to get dirty no matter what, and there are no showers there either!

Sakura's mom shouted up to Sakura from downstairs

"Did you pack your toothbrush?"

"Yes, mom!"

"And don't forget to bring clean underwear!"

"MOM!" Sakura shouted in embarrassment as sheturned bright red. "Naruto and Sasuke are so lucky! They don't have a mom who screams embarrassing things up the stairs so that half the village can hear! Speaking of Sasuke, I wonder how he's doing with his packing?"

Meanwhile, at Sasuke's place, Sasuke was just getting ready to start packing.

"Let's see...a sleeping bag, a flashlight, mp3 player with headphones, and some extra clothes. Alright, I'm done."

Shortly afterwards, Kakashi had called everyone up to meet him again by the bridge.

"Now I'm assuming that we've all packed up our things?" Kakashi asked his squad.

"Yup!" Came Sakura's reply.

Naruto saluted. "You better believe it! I'm ready to go! Can we go?"

"Kakashi-sensei already said that we're not leaving until tomorrow or the day after that! We still have to get food!" Sakura reminded him, frustrated as ever by the blonde's over-eagerness.

"Yes, thank you, Sakura. This is where we'll do our meal planning." Kakashi said.

Naruto thrust his fist into the air. "Alright! RAMEN!"

Sasuke muttered "Geez..." under his breath as he looked away.

Kakashi took out a notepad and a pencil. "Alright, so the first day we're there, we're going to be having only lunch and dinner at the campsite. So what shall we have for lunch the first day?"

"Ramen!" Naruto shouted with glee.

"Ok... first lunch...ramen." Kakashi murmured to himself as he wrote down on the shopping list notepad. "And for dinner?"

"Ramen!" Came Naruto's reply once again.

"Um, ok...more ramen..." Kakashi apprehensively wrote down. "And for breakfast the next day?" Kakashi asked,fearing the answer.

"More ramen!"

"Naruto, we can't just keep having ramen for every meal!" Sakura cried angrily.

"Yes, having ramen twice is more than enough." Kakashi agreed.

"Then why did you let him have it twice?" Sasuke asked.

"Because it's quick, cheap, and easy to make." Kakashi replied.

"All the better for having it again for breakfast!" Naruto grinned, pushing the limit.

"No!" Sasuke and Sakura sternly said in unison.

"Naruto, you just don't eat ramen for breakfast." Kakashi told his young student.

"But I do! Seriously!" Naruto told his sensei.

"Just shut up, Naruto." Sasuke growled.

Naruto pouted. "You guys are so mean to me!"

"Now, any suggestions for breakfast?" Kakahi asked, gaining his students' attention again.

"How about honeycomb cereal?" Sakura suggested.

"Yeah! That's a must!" Naruto agreed.

"Ok, of course that's going to require milk, which will require ice, which will require a cooler. Oh boy, this is going to get expensive." Kakashi sighed as he wrote what they needed down. "Ok, that will probably be enough for our three breakfasts. Now for second lunch."

There was silence as Team 7 was temporarily stumped on what to have for lunch...

"Anybody?" Kakashi prodded.

"How about bagels?" Sasuke suggested.

Naruto burst out. "Yeah! Bagels! Bagels with the cream cheese! Creamy creamy cheesy cheese! Looks like cream, but it's really cheese! Creamy cheesy cheesy-"

Sakura slapped Naruto.

"Stop it! You're annoying me!"

"Alright. Bagels with cream cheese. And for second dinner, I was thinking of having hotdogs." Kakashi said.

"Sure, that's cool with me." Naruto replied.

"And for the third lunch...we'll have smokies" Kakashi added.

"But isn't that the same thing as hotdogs?" Sakura asked.

"No, they're quite different. They're bigger, spicier and more filling than hotdogs." Kakashi answered.

Sakura spoke again. "But then shouldn't they be for dinner, not hotdogs, since they're more filling? I always thought that dinner was supposed to be more filling then lunch."

Sasuke groaned. "It doesn't matter, Sakura. Just keep quiet. I want to get this over with quickly."

"Oh, right...sorry." Sakura replied, obeying the wishes of her crush.

Naruto growled in annoyance.

"Ok, whatever. We'll have the smokies for our second dinner then, and hotdogs for our third lunch." Kakashi said.

"But what about second breakfast? On day three!" Naruto cried.

"He just said that the honeycomb would be our breakfast everyday! Don't you ever listen?" Sakura said, trying to resist punchingthe blonde-haired boyfor his stupidity.

"Everyday? Isn't that a little boring? How about more variety? I say we get lucky charms for day 3, and frosted flakes for day 4!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Naruto, think! Cereal isn't all that cheap these days. It's just going to get expensive."

Kakashi looked at Naruto for a moment. "Hmm...I didn't know you were the picky type, Naruto. But no worries, we can get more cereal if you like." Kakashi wrote down the cereals on his notepad.

"Alright! Lucky charms!" Naruto cheered.

"Naruto, Yyu're going to cost Kakashi-sensei alot ofhis money! I hope you're happy!" Sakura shot at Naruto in hopes of making him feel guilty.

"I am! 3 different awesome-tasting cereals for each day! And I don't even have to pay for them!" Naruto grinned widely.

"Naruto, that's not the point!" Sakura shouted angrily.

Kakashi stepped in. "Hey guys! Let's not fight. The 3 cereals are fine. I can handle it, no problem. I don't mind spending a little extra for this trip. This is meant to be for fun after all, so let's not get worked up over it."

Sasuke sighed in annoyance. "Can we just move on?"

Kakashi nodded. "Right. Now for our last dinner-"

"Hot chocolate!" Naruto said.

"That's not a dinner item!" Sakura corrected Naruto.

"No! For night, you know, before we go to bed, and for around the campfire." Naruto told her.

Kakashi nodded. "Good idea, Naruto. Ok, now for the last night. Perhaps something a little special for our last dinner?"

There was silence for a moment before Naruto spoke. "...Rame-

"NO!" Sasuke and Sakura shouted in unison.

Kakashi waited. "...Any other ideas?"

"Darn...well, how about tacos?" Naruto suggested.

Sasuke raised his head "Well, not a bad idea actually."

Kakashi agreed. "Ok then, tacos. Which will require beef...cheese...lettuce...tomatoes...salsa... wasabi...and a taco kit.

Sasuke stared at Kakashi. "Wasabi?"

Sakura frowned in confusion "But sensei, I thought that tacos were Mexican and that they aren't supposed to have wasabi in them, since wasabi's really spicy and it's Japanese?"

Kakashi looked up from writing the shopping list. "Hm? Oh, I eat my tacos with wasabi."

"What the F-?" Sasuke half shouted

"What? That's messed up!" Naruto cried.

"You guys got a problem with that?" Kakashi asked, almost half implying that they better had not have a problem with it.

Sakura shook her head furiously. "Oh, no! Of course not!"

Kakashi smiled. "Alright then, tacos with wasabi."

Sasuke spoke up. "Then doesn't that mean for hotdogs and smokies, we'll need ketchup and mustard, since you forgot to mention the ingredients needed for them back on daytwo and three?"

"Right. Thank you for reminding me, Sasuke. Oh yeah, and we'll need more wasabi for that too." Kakashi replied.

Sakura stared at her sensei. "What?"

"I eat my hotdogs with wasabi." Kakashi replied.

Naruto stared dumbfounded at his sensei "And let me guess, you eat them with smores too, right?"

"Why, yes actually. I do. Oh, I forgot to put down marshmallows, chocolate, and grahm crackers for smores. And more wasabi." Kakashi wrote down the remaining needs.

"Eww..." Sasuke cringed a bit.

"I thought Kakashi-sensei was weird enough already...but I wasn't prepared for that." Sakura said.

"But...I was just being sarcastic back there! I didn't actually think he would eat wasabi with smores!" Naruto cried.

"And for our final lunch, we'll have easy stuff, such as chips, granola bars, and juice boxes. And I'll bring my fishing rod for fish, just in case." Kakashi said.

"So we're finished, right? When are we going to get the food, huh?" Naruto asked.

"Right now, actually. But you guys go on ahead. I have to grab something, so I'll meet you at the grocery store in half an hour." Kakashi replied.

"Right now? But-" Sakura started, but she was cut off by Naruto.

Naruto jumped in the air and cheered. "All right! Let's go! Let' go! Let's go!"

Sasuke groaned. "Oh boy..."

_To be continued..._

Ok, the genre's officially humor/parody, since a few references to the outside world are made. Now gimmie reviews and i'll bring the next chapter...please?


	3. The grocery shopping spree

Sorry this chapter took awhile to get up. My account was having problems for some days, and I couldn't get documents uploaded onto here. Now it seems to be working again, and hopefully the problem won't happen again.  
Thanks for your reviews, guys. So a few of you like the wasabi idea, eh? I was thinking it might be stupid, but I think I'll keep it in here. Some more of it appearing briefly in this chapter.

A note: If you find that this story is starting to drag on too long, you can skip reading this chapter and the next, as they are just grocery shopping for the trip. Yes, they will be camping for the majority of the story, as the title says. This story won't be going off its title topic very much.

_Disclaimer: I **still** don't own Naruto._

Minutes later, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were waiting at the new large grocery store. (Do I smell "Slave on Foods"?) They were waiting for Kakashi, who was obviously going to be late again.

"Geez, this is so boring! I hate all this waiting!" Naruto groaned.

"Just keep it to yourself. I don't wish to hear your complaints." Sasuke scowled.

"Geez. Fine, Mr. grouchy!" Naruto retorted.

"Naruto! Stop calling Sasuke names! Just go away!" Sakura said angrily.

"Fine, I will!" Naruto replied.

With a pouty face, Naruto walked off towards the shopping cart rack. "Ooh! These look fun!" Naruto giggled and quickly ran back to Sakura.

"Hey Sakura! Do you have a quarter?"

Sakura flipped him a quarter. "Here you go. Just get lost already!"

Naruto grinned, "All right, I'll do that! Thanks, Sakura-chan!"

A satisfied Naruto ran off towards the shopping carts to have his fun.

"Finally! Now I have some peace." Sakura sighed in relief as Inner Sakura shouted within, "Oh yeah! Strike! Now I got Sasuke all to myself!"

Sakura attempted to start a conversation. "So Sasuke. How's summer been?"

"Okay." Sasuke replied.

"Oh...that is good! So...I was wondering...if you would like to-"

"No." Was Sasuke's answer before Sakura could even ask the question.

"Oh...are you sure?"

Naruto was riding on the edge of a shopping cart, going down a hill, screaming in glee.

"Yes. I am quite sure." Came Sasuke's reply.

"...oh, ok." Sakura sighed sadly as Inner Sakura loudly swore.

Naruto was still riding on a shopping cart as he yelled out at random shopper, "Look out! Future Hokage coming through! Make way!"

Sakura stood there mind in a fumble, fidgeting on what to say to Sasuke next after his rejection to her.

" Damn! This awkward silence is so...awkward! Hurry up and get here, Kakashi-sensei!"

And at that moment, Kakashi then appeared in front of Sakura and Sasuke.

"Thank you, sensei! You're a life-saver!" Sakura sighed in relief.

"What ever you mean by that." Sasuke scowled.

"So, are we going to go shopping?" Sakura asked.

"Yes." Kakashi replied. "But where's Naruto?"

"Oh! Naruto?" Sakura called out. She frantically looked around. "Naruto? Oh-no! Where'd he go?

"Where did you last see him?" Kakashi asked.

"Well, he was bugging me, so I..." Sakura stopped speaking.

"Sakura told Naruto to get lost." Sasuke finished.

Inner Sakura raged, "Dammit, Sasuke! You betrayed me!"

Kakashi nodded. "Well, that would explain it."

"Sorry." Sakura said sheepishly.

"Anything else?" Kakashi asked.

"Well, I did give him a quarter...so he might have...umm..." Again, Sakura couldn't finish her sentence.

Kakashi looked over at where the shopping buggies were parked

"Oh-no…" Kakashi sighed as he feared the worst.

Naruto was riding down at the other end of the parking lot, causing mayhem and destruction as usual.

"Look out! Comin' through! OH MY GOD! WATCH OUT, LADY!" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs.

Kakashi poofed (yes, poofed) away from Sasuke and Sakura, and appeared between Naruto and the old lady, stopping Naruto and the shopping buggy inches away from crashing into the old lady.

"Woah! Hey there, sensei!" Naruto grinned.

"Geez, Naruto! What are you trying to do, kill somebody?" Kakashi cried exasperatedly.

The old lady stood there trembling for a moment before she fainted.

Kakashi's eye widened. "Uh-oh. Better leave this area quick, before some passer by suspects us of murder!"

Kakashi put Naruto in the shopping buggy and quickly ran away from the scene of the crime, getting back to Sasuke and Sakura.

Naruto hopped out of shopping buggy. Grinning from ear to ear. "That was fun!"

"No Naruto, that was stupid! You could've killed that old lady!" Kakashi scolded.

"No, I meant when you pushed me away super fast in the buggy!" Naruto corrected. "But rolling down the hill in the buggy was fun too!" he added.

"Naruto, you don't play with shopping buggies. Ever! You were very close to killing that person." Kakashi continuedto lecture the young genin.

"What about me? I could've died too, right?" Naruto asked.

"We could've lived without you." Sasuke replied.

"Sasuke, you're going to die!" Naruto lunged at Sasuke, only to get knocked on the head by Sakura and Kakashi, as they are the peacekeepers of the group.

"No, Naruto. You don't kill your team mates." Kakashi scolded yet again.

"Leave Sasuke alone, Naruto!" Sakura said.

"Can we do this shopping now?" Sasuke asked, hoping to get a move on.

"Yeah! Let's do this thing!" Naruto cheered, immediately forgetting about what he had been angry about earlier.

Naruto proceeded to open the doors of the grocery store. He pushed on the handle, but the door wouldn't budge. He pushed harder.

"It won't budge! Open up, you stupid door!"

Naruto began to kick the door in frustration.

"WHY WON'T YOU OPEN?" Naruto shouted angrily.

"Umm…Naruto?" Kakashi pointed at the sign on the door that clearly said, "Pull"

Naruto stared for a moment before he said anything. "Oh...I knew that!"

Naruto pulled the door open, and team 7 proceeded into the grocery store of doom.

The large grocery store, given the name "Slave On Foods", was filled with many ninja shoppers, doing their weekly food shopping for their families and themselves.

Kakashi handed Sakura a shopping list.

"This is the list of stuff you and Sasuke are going to get. Such as the tacos with their ingredients, and don't forget the wasabi!"

Kakashi glared at the two effectively to make the point get through to them.

"Ok…"Sakura replied nervously.

"Whatever." Was Sasuke's reply...

Kakashi continued, "You will also get the hotdogs,condiments for the hotdogs,and cereal. Me and Naruto will be getting the rest of-"

"But I wanted to get the cereal!" Naruto intervened

"Fine, whatever. We'll get the cereal. Cross that off your list then, Sakura. Write down that you guys will get the chocolate and marshmellows for then smores instead then."

"But I wanted to do that too!" Naruto whined.

"Ok then, you guys get the hot chocolate-"

"But I want to do the hot chocolate!"

"Let's just go!" Sasuke said in annoyance, grabbed a blushing Sakura by the arm and storming off down an aisle.

Sakura was in a daze. "Am I dreaming? Sasuke's holding my arm! This is going to be such a romantic shopping trip! Sasuke's mine now!"

Sasuke abruptly let go of Sakura's arm

"Okay, down to business. What's first on the list?" Sasuke asked Sakura.

Sakura blushed "Well, we have hotdogs. So let's go get that togeth-"

Sasuke dashed off in the opposite direction, and arrived back 15 seconds later with hotdogs and smokies in his hands.

Sakura was shocked and pleased at the same time. "That was fast! You're amazing, Sasuke-kun! Ok now, for smokies."

Sasuke held up the smokies.

"Already have them."

"Oh...well, there's still ketchup and mustard." Sakura added.

Sasuke dashed off again and returned shortly with mustard, ketchup, and relish

Sakura spoke up, "Um, Sasuke? You're an amazing shopper and all that. But I was wondering if we could...you know, just slow down a bit, and enjoy some time together while shopping?"

Sasuke keptthat continuous frown upon his face, " I want to get this over with quickly. I'm wasting my time here. The best thing to do is to split up so this is done quicker. I'll get the hotdog buns, tomatoes, and lettuce, and you get the taco kit and the rest of the taco ingredients. We'll meet back here in 5 minutes."

Sasuke dashed off again to finish the shopping

"But-wait!" Sakura cried out. "So much for a romantic shopping trip."

Sakura sulked off down an aisle to get a taco kit.

Meanwhile, in aisle 5, Naruto was picking out instant ramen under the close watch of Kakashi, for fear that Naruto might do something stupid again.

"And some more miso ramen...and some more miso ramen...and some more-ooh! Pork-flavour!"

"Um...Naruto?" Kakashi tried to speak up.

"Oh! A new flavour! Got to get five of those!"

"Naruto?" Kakashi tried again.

"All the beautiful ramen! I'm gonna be in ramen heaven!"

"Naruto?"

"Yummy yummy ramen! Ooh, I love camping! Oh! More miso ramen"

"Naruto!" Kakashi hit Naruto on the head.

"Ow!" Naruto rubbed the back of his head and glanced up at Kakashi. "Huh? Oh, is this enough ramen, sensei?"

"Naruto, that's too much. Put some back."

"Awww, do I have to?" Naruto whined.

"Yes." Kakashi replied.

"Aw, fine." Naruto reluctantly put some of the ramen back.

Kakashi glanced down the aisle. "Oh, the chocolate we need is just down there for the smores we-"

Naruto cheered. "Chocolate! I'll get it, Kakashi-sensei!"

Naruto leapt away and started to sing his own wonderful made-up song about chocolate. "Chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate!"

Kakashi stared after Naruto. "Geez, what did that kid eat for breakfast, sugar?"

Naruto did cartwheels down the aisle as various people stared at him

"Hmm...no, probably ramen." Kakashi concluded.

Naruto, unfortunately, didn't see where he was going, and happened to cartwheel straight into a large stack of soup cans near the end of the aisle and sent them crashing everywhere.

"Naruto! Oh, man..." Kakashi groaned as heran over and unburied Naruto from soup can avalanche

"You ok, Naruto?"

Naruto eyes were spinning. "Owww...that was fun! Can I do that again?"

The speakers came on, "Clean up in aisle 5."

"Oh boy. We're going to get in trouble." Kakashi sighed as he picked up Naruto and put him in shopping cart while he quickly grabbed the chocolate and fled from the scene as various people stared at them

"Clean up in aisle 5!" The speakers repeated.

Sakura was picking out taco kit as she heard the speakers. "That's got to be Naruto."

Sasuke meanwhile had gotten everything he needed on the list, and was now on the last item: Wasabi.

Sasuke browsed the shelves, looking out for the wasabi. "Geez. Don't know why Kakashi likes that crap so much. This had better be easy to find."

Sasuke turned down an aisle, and sure enough, there was the last tube of wasabi.

"Dammit, who has wasabi with their hotdogs? And their smores! Why couldn't I end up with a normal sensei?"

Sasuke made to grab it, but at the same time, another hand made to take the last wasabi. The hand belonging to...

"Hyuuga Neji?" Sasuke cried in surprise.

_To be continued..._

Note: "Slave on Foods" is a parody name of the grocery store known as "Save on Foods".  
Please review. It really helps me keep going.


	4. The wasabi

Thank you for reviews guys! I meant to get this chapter up sooner, but once again, my account on here was giving me problems. It'll probably happen again within a couple days, but whatever. For now, here's chapter 4.

_Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto, smarties, or any other brand of cereal/food/whatever that appears in this fanfic._

Naruto and Kakashi were in the cereal section, picking out honeycomb, cheerios, frosted flakes-

"And lucky charms!"

Naruto pointed to a shelf where the cereal lay. Kakashi got the cereal and put it into the shopping cart that Naruto was sitting in.

"Kakashi-sensei, can I get out of the cart now?" Naruto asked.

"Clean up in aisle 5, dammit!" the speakers blared.

Kakashi shook his head, "No way! You've caused more than enough trouble for one day already within a span of only 10 minutes! You're staying in here where you'll be out of trouble."

Naruto crossed his arms and made a pouting face.

"Oh, let's get some trail mix while we're at it." Kakashi said as he pushed the cart down the next isle to where the trail mix lay.

"Can we get the kind with smarties in them? The other trail mix kind is yucky!" Naruto said, making a face as he thought about it.

Suddenly, to Naruto's horror, standing in the bulk food aisle were Chouji (who was pigging out on the bulk food from the bulk food containers), Ino, Shikamaru, and their sensei, Asuma.

"Oh-no! C'mon, Kakashi-sensei! You gotta let me out of the buggy! They're going to laugh at me! I'll be the laughing stock among the Konoha genins! I promise I won't mess anything else up! I'll be good!" Naruto pleaded as though he was begging for his life.

Asuma spotted Kakashi and shouted out to him, "Hey Kakashi! Is that Naruto in the buggy you're pushing there? How cute!"

Kakashi muttered under his breath. "Believe me, Naruto. I'm as embarrassed as you are"

"CLEAN UP IN AISLE 5, YOU GOD DAMN-" The speaker was cut off at that moment.

Ino laughed out loud as she pointed at Naruto. " Guys, look at this! Naruto's in the buggy! Doesn't he look like an adorable little baby?"

"Baby Naruto!" Chouji laughed out as choked on bulk food he was eating.

"Oh geez, not again!" Asuma groaned as he proceeded to unchoke Chouji.

Shikamaru glanced at Naruto. "Hm? What's this? Being so troublesome I suppose, so you had to sit in the buggy? Wait till the rest of the genins hear about this!"

Naruto growled angrily "Don't breath a word out about this to Konoha, Shikamaru!"

Ino chuckled "Oh don't worry, Naruto. We'll only spread the word to the end of Sunagakure!"

Ino and Chouji let out a loud laugh as Naruto crossed his arms and pouted.

Asuma grinned, "Ha! He's cute when he pouts!"

"Oh please..." Kakashi groaned as he turned to the trail mix. "Hey Chouji, if you could move for a moment please? I need to get to the trail mix container."

Asuma glanced at Chouji. "What? Oi, Chouji! Stop eating food from the bulk food containers! We'll get in trouble for this, and I'll have to pay for that too, you know! Oh, great, and you've made a big mess of the trail mix on the floor!"

Shikamaru scoffed. "Tch. How troublesome."

Asuma sighed as the speakers came back on "Clean up in the bulk food Aisle."

Kakashi peered into 'trail mix' bulk food container to see that there was no more left.

"...He ate all of the trail mix in that container. Well that's convenient." Kakashi sighed.

"Yay! No disgusting trail mix for us!" Naruto cheered.

Back to Sasuke...Neji and Sasuke stood a few feet from each other, glaring, and both reaching for the last tube of wasabi.

"Sasuke…" Neji sneered

"Neji…" Sasuke scowled.

"Sasuke…."

"Neji…"

"Sasuke…"

Sasuke stopped abruptly. "Ok, that's enough. I've got to get the wasabi now, if you could move your-"

"No! I am the one who is getting this wasabi. Fate has already decided that!" Neji stood, hand ready to grab the wasabi.

Sasuke persisted, "If I don't get that wasabi, my sensei's going to kill me! So if you could just let me-"

"No! I need that wasabi for my tacos, hotdogs, and cheesecake!" Neji shot back.

"What? Oh man...god made two of them!" Sasuke groaned.

Neji spoke, " I will fight you for this wasabi, and I will win, as fate has already decided the outcome! How I have been waiting a long time to fight you, Uchiha Sasuke..."

"Oh great...this is going to take me all night...and he's not going to back down." Sasuke muttered under his breath.

Neji got into his battle stance, ready to duke it out to the death for the last tube of wasabi.

Sasuke suddenly put a surprised expression on his face, looking behind Neji. "Huh? Woah! Is that Hinata over there hitting on some random guy?"

Neji's eyes widened "What? Hinata would never-" Neji looked around, only to leave him open to Sasuke.

"HA! Psych! " Sasuke karate chopped Neji on the head, knocking the unfortunate Hyuuga out. Sasuke quickly grabbed the wasabi and dashed off down the isle to find Sakura.

"Kakashi-sensei better be grateful for this damn tube of crap! I went through a lot of trouble to get it." Sasuke grumbled.

Sakura had meanwhile gotten all the things needed for the taco kit and the hot chocolate without much trouble. But she was still angsting over Sasuke not wanting to shop with her. Sasuke approached her, and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Ready? I've got all the stuff. Let's meet the other two by the checkout."

"Oh, ok. Did you find everything alright? Any problems?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke was about to tell her about the trouble of getting the damned wasabi with Neji, but then horrible images of Sakura glomping him and fondling him came to his head, if he told her what happened. He could hear her already..."Oh-no! Did he hurt you in any way?" "Were you traumatized?" "Where does it hurt, sweetie?" "I knew you could defeat him, 'cause you're my special Uchiha boy!"

Sasuke shuddered violently at these thoughts.

"Are you ok, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked after seeing Sauske randomly start to shudder.

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine." Sasuke grumbled. "I've got to stop letting my imagination go wild like that!" Sasuke thought aloud in his head.

Meanwhile, after much teasing from Asuma and his team, Naruto and Kakashi finally managed to leave and grab the rest of the food that they needed and headed back for the checkout.

"You know sensei, if you had just let me out of the buggy-" Naruto started.

"No, Naruto. Another mess of things because of your hyperactive nature has more disastrous results than a little teasing." Kakashi finished.

As that moment, a random ninja who happened to know Kakashi walked by and stared.

"Wow, Kakashi! You have a kid? I didn't know! How adorable!"

Kakashi suppressed the urge to pummel the ninja's head in, but Naruto however tried to do so before Kakashi restrained him.

"Clean up in the bulk food aisle." The speakers repeated.

"What's taking them? Why can't they hurry up!" Sakura cried.

"Maybe they got lost." Sasuke suggested.

"Oh, that's ridiculous! How can someone get lost in a grocery store?"

"Well, this place is pretty big actually, for a grocery store." Sasuke pointed out.

"I guess it's possible to get lost, but I mean, come on! It'sa grocery store! They're ninjas! And Kakashi is an elite-level jounin. They can't get lost that easily." Sakura concluded.

Meanwhile...

"Uhh...sensei? Where are we?"

Kakashi rubbed his chin thoughtfully "Well...we're in the meat section now, butI can't recall where the checkout was."

"I think the door's over that way!" Naruto pointed. "No wait! It was this way! I think..." Naruto pointed in the opposite direction from where he had pointed before.

"I hate to say it Naruto, but...I think we're lost." Kakashi concluded.

Naruto pointed out something to Kakashi. " Hey! They sell buckets of ice cream here! Can we take some of that for camping too?"

Back at the checkout...

"With those two, anything's possible." Sasuke told Sakura.

Half an hour passed by, and Naruto and Kakashi still hadn't made it to the checkout.

Sasuke grumbled. "Crap, this sucks. I'm going home!"

"What? But Naruto and Kakashi-sensei aren't back yet!" Sakura said, hoping to keep Sasuke at the store with her little longer.

"Who cares? Kakashi-sensei is paying for it. It's fine. I've done my work. I'm going to get some sleep now. I have a feeling I'm not going to get much on the camping trip." Sasuke replied.

So the Uchiha quickly left the store before Sakura could say anything.

Sakura stood there, staring at the door that Sasuke had left through. "He left me here all alone to suffer! Why must you do this, Sasuke? Why?"

_To be continued..._

Please, please, please review! I'll get the next chapter up more quickly than I got this one up.


	5. The car

"Hey, Sakura! We're back!" Naruto shouted out to Sakura as he and Kakashi arrived at the checkout.

"You're late!" Sakura cried accusingly at the two.

"Well, we had a bit of trouble finding the checkout. We kind of got lost." Kakashi told the angry kunoichi.

"That's the worst lie I've heard this month!" Sakura shouted, raising her arms in the air in frustration.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head with his hand sheepishly. "Umm...actually it's true."

Naruto vigorously nodded his head, clearly agreeing.

Sakura stared at the two. "You really did get lost in a store? And you're shinobi! How pathetic!" Inner Sakura shouted within. "How low can you morons go? I've met a monkey who has a better sense of direction than you guys!"

Kakashi looked around as he unloaded the groceries onto the pay counter. "Where's Sasuke?"

"He left already. He said he was getting sick of waiting for you." Sakura replied.

Kakashi sighed. "Figures. Well, I'll go pay for these things, and then we'll load them into the car."

"You got a car? Awesome!" Naruto cried in excitement.

"I got it just before I got here. And I've got everything we need for the camping trip. So we'll probably be able to leave by tomorrow." Kakashi added.

Naruto let out a series of cheers and shouts, cheering, jumping and leaping about and getting many stares from other people who were waiting in line.

"Naruto! I'm as excited as you are, but you don't see me leaping around and screaming, do you?" Sakura said, hands on her hips.

"Aw, c'mon! Lighten up! You're just mad 'cause Sasuke left you to suffer!"

"What! No he-" Sakura began to redden. "He didn't abandon me!"

At that moment, Sakura burst out crying.

"Woah..." Naruto backed away from the emotional kunoichi, as Kakashi finished paying for the groceries.

"Ok, kids. Let's go load these groceries into the car." Kakashi called out.

Naruto jumped with joy. "Let's go, Sakura! This is so cool! We get to actually see and ride in a real live CAR!"

"Cars aren't actually living, Naruto." Sakura corrected him.

As the trio pushed the shopping buggy to leave the grocery store, Naruto ran ahead to hold the door open for Kakashi and Sakura. He tried pulling on the door, but it wouldn't open. He tried pushing but that didn't work either.

"What's with these damn doors here? I tried topush and pull, but it doesn't work!" Naruto shouted as he kicked the door frustratedly with his foot and began pushing and pulling again. "Why won't you open? You stupid door!" By now, Naruto had half the grocery store looking at him.

Kakashi came and put a hand on Naruto's shoulder and pointed at the door. "Naruto...read the sign on the door."

Naruto read the door where it clearly said "In". Realization hit him hard like a rock.

" ...Oh!"

"You moron!" Sakura cried."I can't believe you tried going out of the store by using the "In" door! How thick can you get?"

Naruto pondered this for a moment. "Well...not much more than I am now!"

Naruto went to hold open the "Out" door for Sakura and Kakashi as they proceeded to the parking lot to the car.

"I wonder what kind of car it is? I bet it's something really flashy and new!"

"No, silly! Not for a camping trip. It would just get dirty and scratched up. It's probably something large and second hand." Sakura said.

"But I bet it can tackle really tough ground!" Naruto added.

"Probably."

"Here, Naruto. Take the shopping cart and hold on to it please." Kakashi gave the shopping cart of doom to Naruto, took out his car keys and undid the alarm, and they stopped in front of...

"What the hell is that?" Naruto cried, mouth gaped open.

"It's a smart car!" Kakashi answered proudly. "The most environmentally friendly car made yet! Stands up well to car crashes too! Rated one of the most safest cars-"

"But it's so tiny!" Sakura cut in."How are we going to fit the camping gear, and the groceries, AND ourselves into that thing?"

"Oh, we'll manage somehow." Kakashi replied calmly.

(BTW, if you don't know what a smart car is, do a google search and type it in. Smart cars are basically a new style of a really uber small car, that generally seats 2 to 4 people. They're really tiny...but environmentally friendly! Ok shutting up now.)

Naruto looked at the car in disbelief and disappointment. "This is stupid! Can YOU even fit into it, sensei? It's so puny! I mean, it looks like an ugly hunched-"

Kakashi cut in, "Now Naruto, I won't tolerate you making fun of George."

"George? What?" Naruto repeated in confusion.

"...you named it...you actually named the car?" Sakura said in true disbelief.

"Well, yeah. Of course I did." Kakashi answered.

Sakura took a moment to speak up. "Ok, it was bad enough with the wasabi, but this is too far, sensei! Are you sure you haven't lost your marbles?"

Kakashi put his hand to his chin. "Hmmm...never had any."

"Well that would explain it." Sakura concluded.

"But doesn't he mean marbles as in 'toy' marbles?" Naruto commented.

"You know, I never thought of that. But you're actually acting smart and finding the hidden meaning within the hidden meaning like real shinobi do!" Sakura replied, surprised by Naruto.

"Really? Thanks!" Naruto grinned stupidly, proud of being called smart for once.

"Ok, guys. Let's get the stuff into George."

"What? Who?" Naruto asked, confused.

"The car, Naruto. Let's load the groceries into the car." Kakashi replied.

"Oh! Right, okay!"

Unfortunately, Naruto took his hands off the buggy, and it quickly took off down the hill.

"Naruto, the shopping buggy! You idiot!" Kakashi ran off after the shopping buggy.

"Hey! Don't call me an idiot!" Naruto shouted after Kakashi.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted angrily.

Naruto gasped as a horrible realization hit him.

"My ramen! Nooooo!"

Naruto quickly ran after Kakashi and the run away shopping buggy

" ...Did I say that Naruto was actually smart a few minutes ago?" Sakura mumbled, shaking her head.

5 minutes later, a very harassed-looking Kakashi came back wheeling the buggy, followed by a sheepishly grinning Naruto.

"Okay...let's try this again." Kakashi said.

So they successfully packed all their groceries into the car- er, I mean "George" without much trouble, and went over a few last things.

"So tomorrow, we'll meet by the village gates at 8:00 am" Kakashi told his students..

"8:00? But that's early!" Complained Naruto.

"We have to get an early start. It's a 3-hour drive to our destination after all, so we won't actually make it there until 11:00, unless we make a few stops along the way. Then it'll take longer." Kakashi explained. " Oh, and someone make sure that they tell Sasuke about the meeting times tonight." He added.

"Ooh! Ooh! I'll do that!" Sakura cried enthusiastically.

"Alright, good. Do you guys need a ride home?" Kakashi offered.

Sakura and Naruto eyed George, the smart car, skeptically. The groceries seemed to take up half the room in the small car.

Sakura shook her head. "No thanks. We'll walk home. We need the exercise"

Inner Sakurahad other things comments in mind as always.  
"Yeah right! I just want to spend as little time as possible in that puny hunk of scrap metal you call a car!"

Kakashi shrugged. "Alright then. If you're sure. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Get a good rest tonight."

And so Kakashi climbed into his car, and drove off. (Kakashi driving a car. Weird image, huh? )

Sakura broke the silence first, " I really don't think we're going to all fit in that car tomorrow."

Naruto groaned, "Ooh boy. It's going to be a rough ride tomorrow."

_To be continued..._

Please review...please?


	6. The car ride

Thank you for your reviews, guys! Keep them coming!  
I apologize for any grammar errors or spelling mistakes that may have appeared in the last few chapter or in any future. I do perform spell cheks and proof read my chapters 2 times before posting them up, but it's not always perfect. Hopefully any errors that appear won't bug you too much. Sorry about that.

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or e-bay._

The next morning, Naruto eagerly woke up, choked down 3 instant ramen cups, and was ready to go.

"It's camping time! I'm going to prove that I'm the best camper there ever was in all of Konoha!"

Naruto put on backpack and tried to move, but alas,the backpack was too heavy, as it took up as much room as his bed did

"oh-no...c'mon!" Naruto groaned as he pulled his backpack with all his might. "Must...get...backpack...to...village gates!"

Naruto was panting heavily from all the pulling

"No! I can't give up! I can do this on my own! I have to prove that I'm the ultimate camper! Believe it!"

5 minutes later, Naruto was using the phone.

"Hey, Sasuke? Can you help me bring my stuff down to the car?"

20 minutes later, Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto were standing by the front gates of Konoha (with Naruto's backpack considerably lighter than before) waiting once again for...

"Kakashi-sensei is late again!" Naruto shouted, clearly in fury.

"You just figured?" Sasuke yawned.

"Shhh! Naruto! You'll wake up the remaining half of the village that's still asleep!" Sakura scolded.

Naruto crossed his arms. "Sheesh! Since when does anyone around here sleep past 8:00?"

"Duh! You do, except for today!" Sakura replied.

Then, Kakashi pulled up by the gates with "George" (remember? George the smart car? ) all filled up with equipment and groceries, and now equipped with a canoe tied on the roof that threatened to flatten the poor little car.

Kakashi came out of the car and waved. "Morning, guys! My car ran out of gas, so I had to-"

"Stop lying!" Naruto scolded.

"Kakashi-sensei, where did the canoe come from?" Sakura asked.

"Oh, this? Can you believe it? I bought it off ebay for only $50!" Kakashi exclaimed.

Yes, ebay. Don't ask how or why.

"Oh my god..." was the only way Sakura could reply.

Sasuke stared for the first time at Kakashi's car. "We're going for a three hour drive...in THAT?"

Sasuke gaped in horror, pointing at "George", as Naruto and Sakura had taken care not to mention the small object of transportation they would be riding in, incase this swerved Sasuke's mind into deciding to skip the trip.

Kakashi was shoving Sakura's, Naruto's and Sasuke's bags into the small and already half full car.

"Yes...we do seem to be a little short on space, don't we? But I can fix that!" Kakashi said reassuringly. "Sasuke, you get in the front since you're the largest of the three. And Sakura, see if you can squeeze into the back."

Sakura looked like she was in denial. "You've got to be kidding me! How am I going to fit in there with all the luggage practically taking up my seat? And how will Naruto fit in there with me?"

"Naruto won't be sitting with you. He'll be sitting up on the roof." Kakashi replied, as though it was no big deal.

"What?" Sakura shouted.

"What the f-" Sasuke started, but was luckily cut off before anything naughty could be emitted from the Uchiha's mouth.

"I get to ride on the roof? Awesome!" Naruto shouted with gleeas he jumped up in down in anticipation.

"Um, sensei? Isn't that illegal?" Sakura asked,

"It doesn't matter. There's not many people out there who'll try to stop us, since not many people use these things in the direction we're headed Come to think of it, there's not many people where we're headed."

"What? No people?" Sakura cried in horror.

"This is going to be my first and best car ride ever!" Naruto shouted in glee as he hopped onto the roof of the car "Let's go!"

Sakura squeezed into "George" and tried to seat herself onto one of the seats.

"I can't fit in here! I need a seatbelt to be safe!" Sakura said.

"No worries, Sakura! There's so much stuff in there that if we do crash, all of the luggage and equipment stop you from flying through the windshield anyways!" Naruto told her.

"Naruto, that's not helping! And you're not safe up there either! You don't have a seatbelt, so if we crash, you're the one that's going to go flying! Then you'll it a tree and die!"

Sasuke spoke up "Kakashi-sensei, this isn't going to work. We really need a bigger car."

Kakashi sighed

"I suppose you're right. Ok, I'm going to take George back, and see if I can get something a bit bigger." Kakashi finally agreed.

"Can I still ride on the roof?" Naruto asked.

"No."

"Can I come with you to the car shop and ride on the roof on this car on the way there?"

"Naruto, get down from there, and just wait here" Kakashi ordered. "I won't be more than an hour."

"Yeah right..." muttered Sasuke.

An hour later and a half later, surely enough, Kakashi wasn't there.

"I knew it. Late again." Sasuke sighed in annoyance.

Sakura and Naruto by this time had fallen asleep on the ground. Sasuke had half the mind to ditch Sakura and Naruto then and there and hide so that he wouldn't have to go on the trip.

However, the two of them woke up to the sound of a car approaching, but it wasn't really a car...not a car at all...it was one of those friggin' huge goddamn SUV's thatso many peoplehave these days.

Kakashi stepped out of the car, no…that's really not the right word to call it.

"You're late! Again!" Naruto pointed at Kakashi.

"I had to-" Kakashi started.

"Don't even try to make up an excuse!" Sakura interrupted. She looked up at the SUV, her mouth hanging open for a moment before she spoke again.

"Ok, I knew we needed a bigger car, but not that big!"

"Actually, it works very well. It's perfect" Sasuke said on the contrary to Sakura.

"Yes, I think I like this car better." Kakashi agreed, smiling.

"Can I ride on the roof?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, I already told you, no." Kakashi replied.

"I have a question. How the hell did you get a canoe for only $50?" Sakura asked.

"Never question the wonders of ebay, Sakura." Kakashi smiled.

"Can we just go now?" Sasuke spoke up, reminding them of what they were supposed to be doing.

"Yes. Everyone climb in. It's time to hit the road!" Kakashi announced.

Naruto cheered as those words hit his ears. "I call shotgun!"

"Hey! Wait a second-" Sasuke cut in.

"But I wanted it first!" Sakura intervened.

"Ok, well not Naruto, since you're too short. The airbag will kill you if it bursts open in a car accident." Kakashi said.

Naruto puffed his chest out. "I'm not going to let a stupid airbag scare me! I'm going to be the next Hokage, so-" Naruto was cut off by Kakashi.

"Naruto, the answer is no. You can't become Hokage if the airbag kills you. So you're sitting in the back for safety. Sakura can go up front on the way there, and Sasuke can go on the way back. Okay?"

"Whatever." Sasuke replied.

Naruto and Sasuke grouchily climbed into the back seat, while Sakura happily hopped into the front seat happily, only to realize that she had just been separated from her beloved Sasuke, (The horror!) and would remain that way for 3 dreadful hours.

"4 hours." Kakashi told his team.

"WHAT?" the three genins shouted.

"But you told us it would only take 3 hours!" Sakura protested.

"Well, I had to lie, in case the 4 hour drive would put you off the camping trip." Kakashi told them as he started up the car.

Sasuke undid his seat belt. "That's it! I want out! I'm not going to be stuck in the same seat as Naruto or any of you freaks for 4 straight hours!"

Sakura sniffled and began to tear up. "I'm a...freak?"

"We'll make a few rest stops and thing like that. And besides, it's too late to hop out now." Kakashi told Sasuke.

Sasuke stared back out the window as the car was now speeding away from Konoha.

Sasuke groaned as he dropped his head on the side of the car window. "Agreeing to go on this stupid trip could be the most horrible mistake I've ever made."

"At least we didn't have to go in the other car. Otherwise you two would probably be absolutely squished together!" Sakura told Sasuke, trying to cheerhim up.

"And I'm not going to let that stinking dirty Naruto soil my dear lovely Sasuke's skin and clothes!" Inner Sakura added.

"Well actually, if we still had "George" with us, I'd be riding on the roof!" Naruto added.

"Can you drop that already?" Sasuke growled.

"Ah, I almost forgot. We need to think of a new name for this car." Kakashi said.

"If the word, car, is even the right thing to describe this monster." Sakura added.

"If you want monster, he should've gotten a bus!" Naruto grinned, laughing.

"Naruto, be quiet!" Sakura snapped. "Anyways, sorry sensei, but I won't be participating in this activity."

"Alright then, suit yourself." Kakashi replied.

"Ooh! We should name it...the Naruto car!" Naruto suggested.

"Oh god, no..." Sasuke groaned. "It's not even a car!"

"Oh yeah? Then what suggestion do you have, Mr. smarty-pants?" Naruto spat.

"Actually, I was thinking of Michael." Kakashi cut in.

"Michael?" Naruto repeated.

"I don't really like it though." Sakura said.

"Didn't you say you weren't going to be involved in this?" Sasuke questioned.

"Oh, yeah. I did." Sakura remembered.

"Ok, then. Michael it is!" Kakashi declared, smiling.

And so they drove on in "Michael" for a few silent moments.

"Hey! Let's sing a car song!" Naruto randomly suggested.

"No!" Was Sasuke's immediate response.

"No one ever said you had to join in!" Naruto retorted.

Naruto cleared his throat and began to sing.

"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall! Ninety-nine bottles of beer!"

Then to Sasuke's surprise, Kakashi joined in.

"You take one down, and...drink it?"

"What? No! You got it all wrong!" Naruto cried.

"Well, that's what I'd do." Kakashi stated.

Sakura gave Kakashi a disapproving look. "Kakashi-sensei! Are you an alcoholic?"

"Actually, no. I rarely drink. Just one in awhile for a treat, you know, like how Naruto gets his ramen as a treat." Kakashi replied.

"Umm, sensei? That's almost every day. 2-3 times a day!" Naruto told Kakashi.

Kakashi thought for a moment and then spoke. "Oh...never mind then. I can't sing the song properly."

"Ok then, I'll just sing it myself then until I get down to 1 bottle of beer. And I won't stop till I get there! Believe it!" Naruto picked up the tune once more. "Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall! Ninety-nine bottles of beer!"

"Can't you think of a better song?" Asked Sasuke, testily.

"You take one down, pass it around, 98 bottles of beer on the wall!"

Eventually, Sakura joined in enjoying herself, while Kakashi listened on, smiling, and Sasuke, sitting there grouchily with his arms folded. This went on for about 20 or 30 minutes, finallyleaving Naruto as the only one singing.

"27 bottles of beer on the wall! 27 bottles of beer!"

Sakura groaned, "Oh man! He wasn't kidding when he said that he was going to sing the whole song!"

Sasuke was covering his ears by now with a look of utter revulsion upon his face

Kakashi sighed, a little tired of the song himself

Naruto continued to sing up to 5 minutes later.

"One bottle of beer on the wall! One bottle of beer!"

Sakura sighed with relief. "Thank god. I don't think I can take another bottle of beer."

"If Naruto had drunk as many bottles as he was singing, he'd be totally plastered by now." Kakashi chuckled at his crude statement.

"Sensei, sometimes your sense of humor is just a little too twisted." Sakura sighed.

"Ah, you're right." Kakashi replied. "He would have passed out after drinking only 10 bottles."

Sakura just shook her head, knowing she just couldn't win.

"Take it down, pass it around, now there's no bottles of beer on the wall!" Naruto completed his song. "I did it! Told you guys I could!"

"Finally...it's over!" Sasuke sighed with relief.

"Yeah, too bad, huh? Let's start over again! Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the-"

Sasuke violently twitched.

"Shut up!" Sakura loudly shouted.

"Naruto, I think that's enough of that song." Kakashicut in, stopping Naruto's repeat of the song.

"Ok then! Time for a new one!" Naruto grinned, solving the problem.

Naruto began to sing a new song. " This is the song that never ends! Yes it goes on and on my friends!"

A very vexed Sasuke plugged his earphones in and turned up his mp3 player full blast. Sakura sat there, looking ready to strangle Naruto as Kakashi drove on, smiling and chuckling...though he sure wouldn't be chuckling 1 hour later...

When one hour had passed, Naruto was still singing. It was a wonder that his voice was still working.

"And they'll continue singing it forever just because, this is the song that never ends"

"Shut up already!" Sakura shouted at the top of her lungs so that Naruto would hear her.

But he wasn't paying any attention, or he couldn't actually hear her over his own voice. She couldn't hit him either, because he was sitting too far back for her to reach.

Sasuke had his earphones plugged in, so he couldn't seem to hear Naruto's horrid tone-deaf singing. "Wise of Sasuke to bring that music if his" thought Sakura.

Sakura wondered how Kakashi-sensei could be taking all of this. "He must have a lot of patience and a high 'annoying tolerance level' to just smile and nod to all this" she thought. But as she looked closer at him, Kakashi seemed to be continuously twitching and looked ready to smash his head on the steering wheel from frustration. Luckily, Kakashi had more control than that. Sakura however, began to fear for her own sanity at that moment.

Kakashi took a deep breath and spoke out to Naruto.

"Naruto, time to stop!"

But Naruto couldn't hear him.

Sakura yelled back to Sasuke. "Sasuke! Tell Naruto to stop singing!"

But Sasuke had his music full blast, and if he could not hear Naruto, he would definitely not hear Sakura.

Kakashi then violently steered the car left and right, as though he was trying to avoid some panic-stricken animal on the road.

"This is the song-Woah! Oh mygod, we're gonna die!"

The swerving car sent Naruto and Sakura screaming.

"What's happening?" Sasuke asked, partially panic-struck.

Kakashi stopped the car-no, I mean, the goddamn SUV-I mean, _Michael_, abruptly.

"Well that got your attention." Kakashi said.

"What happened?" Sakura asked in a shaky voice.

"Nothing." Kakashi replied. "I just did that to get Naruto's attention, and to rid myself of frustration. You know, calm myself."

Sasuke was trembling, deeply fearing that his life had almost been snatched away from him because of a silly car crash. He couldn't die in something as stupid as a car crash, especially since he had not killed Itachi yet.

"Ever heard of yoga? Or meditation!" Sasuke half shouted at Kakashi.

"Anyways, back to the point. Naruto, stop singing please. Save it for thecampfire." Kakashi told Naruto.

"Alright if you say so." Naruto obeyed. "Oh boy! I can't wait for campfire!"

"Oh-no..." Sakura groaned.

_To be continued..._

Remember...to review!


	7. The arrival

It seems I have received a rather large amount of reviews for chapter 6 there, which is very unexpected and awesome. Thank you very much for your positive reviews, guys. They made me smile, they made me laugh, and they made me very happy. It makes me very happy to know that you guys like this story and it helps me carry on writing this fanfic. I just hope I can continue to make this story funny and enjoyable for all of you. Thank you again for the great amount of reviews. You guys rock! Ok, now for chapter 7. Hope you guys enjoy!

" I have to go to the washroom!" Naruto whined.

"Why didn't you tell me when I passed that town 10 minutes ago?" Kakashi asked, a little peeved.

"Well...I didn't know I had to go back then!" Naruto answered.

"Idiot." Sasuke muttered.

"Hey! Don't call me an idiot, you idiot!" Naruto snapped.

"Guys, stop fighting." Kakashi calmly cut in.

"I kind of have to go too." Sakura spoke up.

"We'll pull off on the side of the road so Naruto and Sakura can use the bushes then." Kakashi said.

"I have to use the WHAT?" Sakura cried in shock and disgust.

"You're a shinobi. Get used to not using a toilet when you're in the wilderness. This situation may happen many times on a future mission when you become an elite ninja." Kakashi told Sakura.

"Then I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to becoming one." Sakura moaned.

So they pulled over so that they could go...use the bushes. Kakashi hummed to himself as he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, while Sasuke became lost in his own world listening to his music.

"Oh-no...damn it!" Sasuke cursed, teeth clenched in frustration.

"What's wrong?" Kakashi asked.

"My batteries for my mp3 player just ran out...now I have to endure Naruto's idiocy and Sakura's babbling for another4 days!" Sasuke groaned.

"We'll see if we can stop off by a store to get some more batteries." Kakashi told the frustrated Uchiha boy.

Sakura and Naruto then came out, with what looked like Sakura shouting at Naruto, who was sporting a large bump in his forehead, Sakura accusing him of peeking on her.

"But I wasn't! I swear!" Naruto cried, rubbing the bump on his head.

"Likely story, you pervert!" Sakura shouted angrily.

Sasuke sighed. "How much longer, sensei?"

"Just one more hour of driving left." Kakashi replied.

"Thank god! I'm sick of being squished back there with this idiot!" Naruto huffed, pointing at Sasuke.

So they drove on...and on...for what seemed like an hour...but it had only been 15 minutes. How painful.

"Naruto, move over. You're squishing me!" Sasuke growled.

"I'm barely touching you!" Naruto said angrily. "And I can't move over anymore! There's too much equipment in this car to move around!"

"Whatever. Just stay on your own side of the seat." Sasuke grumbled moodily.

"I am on my own side of the seat!" Naruto angrily replied back. "You move to your side!"

"You move!" Sasuke growled.

"No, you move!"

"No, you move!"

"You move!"

"You move!"

"Children, stop fighting." Kakashi told the two quarrelling genins.

"Children?" Sakura repeated before she laughed out loud

"Shut up, Sakura." Sasuke growled.

Sakura stopped laughing abruptly. "Sorry, Sasuke-kun!"

So the silence remained for 5 minutes, until Kakashi had to make a sharp turn on the road, which sent Naruto leaning on Sasuke by accident.

"Get off me!" Sasuke growled, pushing Naruto away.

"I couldn't help it! Kakashi-sensei made a really sharp turn, so I fell!"

"Naruto! Get your dirty paws off Sasuke!" Sakura ordered.

But Sakura-" Naruto pleaded.

"Stay on your own side, dammit!" Sasuke huffed.

"I'm trying to, you dumb ass!" Naruto retorted.

Kakashi intervened again, "Do I have to put all wall in between you two?"

Sasuke and Naruto were silent for a moment before they replied, "...Yes!"

Kakashi sighed, "Just try to get along for the last 35 minutes, okay guys? Naruto, you stay on your side, and Sasuke, no provoking Naruto."

Naruto crossed his arms and pouted.

"Wasn't my fault you made such a sharp turn!"

"I'll try my best not to make sharp turns anymore. I'm still trying to get the hang of driving vehicles though, so it might get a little rough." Kakashi replied.

"Great! That's exactly what we want to hear from you." Sasuke grumbled. "Now I can worry about you driving us off a cliff or crashing us into a tree!"

"Don't worry, Sasuke." Kakashi assured his student, smiling. "That won't happen...I hope."

5 minutes later, Naruto spoke up.

"I'm hungry!"

"Don't you ever just sit quietly and not complain?" Sakura scolded.

"We're almost there." Kakashi assured the young blonde fox boy.

"Really? Really? How much longer, sensei?" Naruto bounced up and down in his seat in excitement.

"Just 30 more minutes." Kakashi replied.

"Really? 30 minutes? Great!" Naruto cheered.

30 minutes later however…

"Are we there yet?" Naruto asked.

"Obviously not." Kakashi replied.

"Are we there yet?" Naruto asked again

"I said no." Kakashi replied once again.

"Are we there yet?"

"Didn't you just hear me, Naruto?"

"Are we there yet?"

"Oh no...not this game." Sasuke groaned.

"Naruto, be quiet!" Sakura shouted. "Just ignore him, sensei."

"Are we there yet?" Naruto asked once again.

"Naruto, kindly shut your pie hole." Kakashi replied.

Naruto scowled and crossed his arms, doing as he was told.

10 minutes later, they were still driving.

"Kakashi-sensei? Weren't we supposed to be at the campsite 10 minutes ago?" Sakura asked, starting to sound a little worried.

"Oh, my mistake. Just 30 more minutes." Kakashi told her.

And so, 30 minutes later...

"Just 30 more minutes." Kakashi announced.

"Why does that sound familiar?" Sasuke said.

10 minutes later...Naruto once again asked the ever-so famous car trip question.

"Are we there yet?"

"NO!" Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke shouted.

20 minutes later...

"Just 30 more minutes, guys. I'm sure of it." Kakashi announced.

"30 more minutes? That's what you said an hour ago!" Naruto whined. "How it that possible?"

"That's it. We're lost." Sasuke concluded.

"Lost? No! We can't be!" Sakura cried in a panicky voice. "What are we going do?"

"Don't panic, guys." Kakashi assured them "The campsite's actually just up ahead down this dirt road. We'll be there in a few moments!"

20 minutes later...

"Anytime now…we'll get there." Kakashi said.

"We are so screwed." Sasuke groaned.

Sakura went into a panic. "But I don't want to get lost! I'm too young to die! I still haven't grown my hair out, and I need to get that manicure I've been dying to get for months, and I haven't gotten my first kiss from Sasuke yet, and-"

"What?" Sasuke cried.

"Uh-I mean, y-you didn't hear that!" Sakura stammered, trying to cover her foolish self up.

"Sakura, what the hell were you saying about-" Sasuke started, but was cut off by his blonde teammate.

"Hey look guys! We're here!" Naruto shouted in excitement.

Surely enough, they arrived at the campground, where a large sign read in large letters:

"Camp Death?" Sakura read out loud.

"Why does this not sound so appealing?" Sasuke asked, suspicion in his voice.

"It's probably just some practical joke some teenagers put up." Kakashi replied, trying to cover up the fact that the name, "Camp Death", was the real name of the campground. They pulled up at a tollbooth that lay near the sign. The tollbooth was covered in graffiti, smashed in, and unoccupied.

"That's odd…" Kakashi murmured. "There's supposed to be someone here who assigns us to our campsite when we pay them. But the registration booth is totally smashed in."

"Does his mean we get to stay here for free and choose our own campsite?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"It seems that way. I guess we can go find a campsite now."

So they drove "Michael" down one of the gravel lanes into "Camp Death", where a few campsites lay, each having an old wooden picnic table and a fire pit. Naruto was commentating on every campsite they passed by, assessing whether it was good enough or not to stay in.

"Not that one...it's too small. And that one looks too open and boring. We need to find one that's real big and has lots of trees and bushes surrounding it!"

"Naruto, this is camping. You can't be too picky with a camping spot. What's available is what we get." Kakashi told the critical genin.

"I don't think availability will be a problem here." Sakura said, seeing that every campsite they had passed had been empty so far.

"Ok, but let's try to find one that's cool!" Naruto replied, hardly taking in what his sensei just told him.

"Who cares? Let's just find a stupid camping spot, so I can get out of the damn car. I don't feel so good..." Sasuke groaned.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention before we left. Now that we're here, we won't be able to use any of our ninja skills in this area. All of our ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, and chakra powers will be disabled." Kakashi informed his students.

"What! Why?" Naruto cried.

"It's just the way this forest and area works. I don't get it either." Kakashi replied. His students stared at him as though he was crazy…well, maybe he was. "Don't fret though. It'll be a good challenge for us to live as normal human beings for a couple of days."

"How will we survive?" Sasuke asked, starting to surprisingly feel very insecure.

"If people who aren't shinobi can camp, then so can we!" Kakashi replied with confidence. "It won't be hard at all, since we won't encounter other ninjas here. Even if we do, they won't able to do anything either. This is just meant to be for fun, so please don't freak out. The most dangerous things we might encounter here are bears, rabid squirrels, and crazy campers, but even those things are rare to come by and easy to avoid."

The three genin continued to stare at their sensei as though he was crazy.

"Trust me, you won't die. I've done this before, so I should know." Kakashi assured his students.

"I don't want to run into a crazy camper!" Sakura whined in a very panicky tone of voice.

As they drove down, only one campsite in the whole campgrounds was occupied by what looked like a crazy-looking old hobo and his mutt of a dog.

"Hey! There's one of those crazy campers you guys were talking about now!" Naruto pointed out.

Sakura gave a little yelp of fear, "Let's not camp too close to him!"

"I agree." Kakashi replied, looking suddenly slightly startled as he looked closer at the old man.

Sasuke groaned as he clutched his stomach.

Naruto bounced up and down in his seat and pointed out the window. "Ooh! There's one! It's perfect!"

So they pulled into the campsite and hopped out of "Michael".

Naruto took a deep breath and raised his arms in the air. "Whoohoo! Smell that fresh air!"

Sasuke bolted out of the car with his hand covering his mouth and headed for the nearest bush. Retching and gagging sounds were heard.

"...Not so fresh anymore." Kakashi corrected Naruto. "Looks like Sasuke just lost his lunch."

"Sasuke! Are you alright?" Sakura cried as she ran over to Sasuke.

"I just...got carsick," Sasuke groaned. "Go...away..."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm hungry!" Naruto said loudly.

Kakashi nodded, "Me too. We'll leave Sasuke be for now. The rest of us are hungry, so let's have some lunch first and then we can-"

More retching sounds from Sasuke 'losing his lunch' were heard as Kakashi tried to explain. Kakashi turned away from Sasuke, looking a little sick himself.

"...Anyways, you two have fun eating. I'll be pitching the tent." Kakashi finished.

Naruto turned to look away from Sasuke. "Scratch that, sensei. I've just lost my appetite."

_To be continued..._

Review...and you shall be showered with gifts of cookies!


	8. The tent pitching

Thanks forallof the reviews again guys. They really do make me smile. Keep it up!

_Disclaimer: I_ (surprise surprise!) _still don't own Naruto or any characters from it._

So, Team 7 skipped lunch, and went straight to pitching up the tents. Sasuke and Naruto were sent to set up one tent, while Kakashi and Sakura set up another, which Sakura didn't complain about out loud, as she knew it would be too good to be true to ever sleep in the same tent as Sasuke.

Naruto was having a bit of trouble comprehending on how a tent was set up as he fiddled around with the poles, trying to stick them through the tent cloth. "Ok, now how does this work again? Oh yeah! We put the pole here..."

"Naruto, you're doing it all wrong! You're supposed to put the pole through the loop." Sasuke scolded.

Naruto grumbled as did as he was told, sticking the pole through the loop as Sasuke put another pole through a loop.

"Now we'll stand the tent up." Sasuke instructed.

Naruto and Sasuke pulled the tent up, but Naruto's pole came snapping out, sending the tent flopping back down on the ground again.

"Naruto, you idiot! You didn't put that in properly! That could've snapped back at me and taken my eye out!" Sasuke shouted angrily.

"Oh yeah? Then why don't you do it then, if you're so smart!" Naruto suggested angrily as he took the tent cloth and threw it over Sasuke.

"What the hell? Naruto!" Sasuke angrily shouted as he thrashed around under the tent cloth. "Get this thing out of me, dammit! I can't see!"

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried. "Naruto, get him out of there!"

"Leave them be, Sakura. They really need to work it out themselves." Kakashi cut in.

"But-" Sakura objected before giving in. "Oh, alright."

"Nya nya! Stupid Sasuke! You got tangled in the tent!" Naruto teased and laughed loudly, sticking his tongue out.

Sasuke tripped and fell down from thrashing around and trying to get out of the tent cloth.

"Oooh, did Sasuke fall down? Poor baby!" Naruto gushed as he laughed.

"I'm going to kill you when I get myself out of this, Naruto!" Sasuke shouted, practically in rage now.

"Yeah, good luck with that…Sasuke-CHAN!" Naruto gleefully teased, placing much emphasis on the last word.

Unfortunately for Naruto, completely pissed-off Sasuke managed to blindly grab hold of Naruto's leg, making Naruto fall over and getting himself tangled in the tent cloth as well.

"Sasuke! Why you-"

But Naruto's thrashing around only made things worse, causing him and Sasuke to get even more tangled up.

5 minutes later, Kakashi and Sakura's tent was up and ready, while Sasuke and Naruto's tent resembled what looked like a rolled up malformed ball of cloth with poles sticking out of it in odd directions.

"Well, I think our tent's good." Kakashi said as he stood back, observing his and Sakura's work.

"Definitely, but what about Sasuke-kun and Naruto?" Sakura reminded her sensei, pointing to her two team-mates trapped within the tangled up tent.

"Yeah, about them…we probably better go help them now." Kakashi replied.

So Kakashi and Sakura untangled the tangled mass of tent and poles, and quickly separated Naruto and Sasuke from killing each other.

Kakashi crossed his arms and glared at Sasuke and Naruto. "That is, without doubt, the worst teamwork I've seen yet! I'm very disappointed in you two."

"Well, he started it!" Naruto objected, pointing at Sasuke.

"What? You were the one who threw the tent on top of me, you bastard!" Sasuke growled, dying to strangle Naruto with his hands on the spot.

"Who are you calling a bastard, you bastard!" Naruto shot back angrily.

"Guys, that's enough!" Kakashi cut in loudly. " I'm going to be sure that you two work on your team work skills together as much as possible while we're here."

"So much for a vacation." Sasuke grumbled.

"Sakura, would you mind showing these two fools how do pitch up their tent?" Kakashi requested, turning to the kunoichi.

"Alright, leave it to me!" Sakura replied and turned to Sasuke and Naruto. "Now boys, we first have to put the pole through this loop. So Naruto, you go over there, and Sasuke-kun, if you could take that side over there, that would be great."

Naruto obeyed, while Sasuke, grumbling things about Naruto's stupidity and being ordered around by a girl, grudgingly took a side of the tent, while Kakashi sat down on a fold-up chair, reading "Icha Icha Paradise" or "Icha Icha Violence". You decide.

10 minutes later, with much of Sakura's contradicting remarks to Naruto, and her crooning and cheering for Sasuke, the tent was set up.

"Now that that's done, we're going to need to get your stuff in now." Sakura told the boys.

So Naruto and Sasuke went to "Michael", the car, remember? (Or really, the SUV, or giant van) to go fetch their stuff, and returned to their tents to set up.

Sakura turned to Kakashi. "Kakashi-sensei, those peg lines on our tent are sticking out a lot. They're easy to trip on! It's an accident just screaming to happen, especially in the dark!"

Sakura pointed to where the tent pegs were lodged into the ground and the strings attaching them to the tent, indeed proving as a tripping hazard.  
Tripping over tent peg-lines. It happens all the time on camping trips.

Kakashi glanced at his tent, then at Sakura. "Oh yes. Thanks for helping with my tent Sakura, but you'll be sleeping with the boys. The tent we set up will be mine only."

"Huh? But I worked hard to set up that-oh wait! That means I'll be with Sasuke? I never thought this could ever happen!" Sakura blushed immensely. "Ok, no problem, sensei!"

"All right! I get to sleep with Sakura-chan!" Naruto cheered as he heard their conversation.

"What? Oh crap!" Sakura cursed.

"Alright, Sakura-chan! Now we can swap stories, talk all night, eat snacks, tell each other ghost stories, and freak each other out, and-" Naruto babbled on and on excitedly, while Sakura's enthusiasm about sharing a tent with her team-mates was diminishing with every word that came out of Naruto's mouth.

"Oh-no. There goes my beauty sleep..." Sakura groaned, thinking that being stuck in the same tent with Naruto was the absolute worst thing that could possibly happen. "Kakashi-sensei, are you sure we can't share that tent? Or could you at least take Naruto in your tent? Yes, take Naruto! Please take him! Please?"

"No, I need my own tent separate from you guys. I'm sure you three will cope well on your own. You three need to be around each other more anyways to help build familiarity and good relations with each other for teamwork." Kakashi replied.

Knowing that she couldn't argue with the Copy Ninja, Sakura slowly walked to "Michael" to get her stuff.

Sakura murmured to herself. "At least I'll have Sasuke with me. That will make this trip fun!" Sakura smiled. "I call sleeping by Sasuke!" she cried out as she grabbed her things and ran to the tent.

Sakura reached the tent, ready to lay her things out, but alas, Sasuke had claimed the right side of the tent and was laying his sleeping bag out, and Naruto, sitting merrily on his sleeping bag, had the middle.

"I'm not going to be sleeping squished between you two in the middle, Naruto. So I'm staying on the right side." Sasuke told his grinning teammate.

"Alright, fine by me! I've already got dibs on the middle!" Naruto replied.

"Naruto, move your ass!" Sakura demanded angrily. "I'm sleeping beside Sasuke!"

Naruto shook his head. "No way! I need the middle to keep you from getting too romantic all over Sasuke! And I want the middle so I can stay warm too!"

"Thanks for caring." Sasuke muttered.

"But I want the middle!" Sakura whined.

"Sakura, it doesn't matter. It's stupid to argue over something like this. Just set up your things and be quiet." Sasuke ordered.

Sakura meekly replied, "Ok." and gloomily set up her things on the left side of the tent while Sasuke sat on his sleeping bag, brooding on how he couldn't get more batteries for his musical device, and Naruto sat on his sleeping bag, grinning and giggling.(Don't ask why he was randomly grinning and giggling. He's _Naruto_ after all, right?)

Later on, when everything was set up, and the sun was setting...already?

"We better cook dinner, guys." Kakashi announced.

"Alright! I'm getting hungry!" Naruto grinned as he burst out of the tent, stomach growling.

"What's on the menu for tonight then?" Sakura asked, also emerging from the tent.

"Oh Sakura-chan, how could you forget? Ramen!" Naruto answered with glee, grinning ear to ear.

"Oh right, that stuff. You guys have fun making dinner." Sakura replied, unenthused.

"Don't count on me to help either." Sasuke added as he stepped out of the tent.

"That's fine. It's easy for just Naruto and I to make ramen." Kakashi replied.

"Yeah! We don't need stupid Sasuke to help us!" Naruto added, making a face at Sasuke, sticking his tongue out.

Kakashi took out a pot and small camping stove. "Okay, we just need to boil some water. So Naruto, get some water."

"Yes, sir!" Naruto saluted. He stood there for a moment before he spoke again. "Where exactly do I get water from?"

"There's a path just down the lane. Follow it, and it should take you to the lake. Take a bucket with you so we can have some more water for later." Kakashi instructed.

"Ok!" Naruto replied enthusiastically as he took a bucket and bounded down the lane, but not before crashing into a tree and narrowly avoiding the camp ranger's truck from running him over.

"Oh boy. Don't die on us, Naruto." Kakashi sighed.

_To be continued..._

Please review. You know you waaaaant to:D


	9. The ramen dinner

Naruto merrily skipped down the path towards the lake, bucket swinging from his hand. He travelled down the path for a few moments, then the path turned into a trail. He skipped down the trail until the trees stopped. A large lake surrounded by a bit of a gravely beach, trees, and mountains lay before him.

Naruto let out a loud "Woooow!" as he gazed around the area in awe, quickly forgetting his duty to collect water. He shouted out at the top of his lungs and jumped into the lake with all his clothes still on, laughing and splashing around in the water.

Naruto gasped as he saw something move in the water. "FISH!" he shouted out loudly as he lunged at the fish, only to miss it.

"Damn! Missed it. Ooh! Another one!"

And so Naruto continued diving and jumping round in the water, trying to catch a fish that he would never catch.

Back at the campsite, Kakashi was still waiting for the water to make the ramen.

"What's taking him so long?" Kakashi wondered aloud.

Sasuke was squatting at the small fire pit, striking matches in an attempt to light a fire. He was not used to using matches, as he generally just used his fire jutsu whenever he needed to light up anything.

"Dammit! Why isn't it working? Stupid camp site, not letting me use my fire-breathing jutsu!"

Sasuke lit match after match, but the fire failed to start. Sasuke began to get rather irritated. "Light, dammit! Catch on fire, you stupid piece of wood!"

Sasuke hit his fist upon the firewood, only to bruise his hand and cry out in pain afterwards. "Stupid piece of crap! Why won't you burn?" Sasuke shouted angrily.

"Sasuke, it's not good to be seen talking to inanimate objects." Kakashi advised.

Sasuke got up, frustrated, and kicked over the pile of wood in the fire pit, only to hurt his toes, as he was wearing his toe-exposing ninja sandals. Sasuke clutched his foot in his hand, cursing under his breath. Sasuke stormed off, or really, hopped off, into his tent.

"It's not good to hit inanimate objects either, Sasuke." Kakashi told the vexed Uchiha.

Sasuke shouted a mixture of colourful cuss words at his sensei.

"It's very impolite to use bad language like that, Sasuke." Kakashi scolded, just pissing off Sasuke even more.

"Kakashi-sensei, shut up!" Sakura shouted.

Back at the lake, Naruto was still goofing off.

"FISH!" Naruto lunged at the fish again, just to miss catching it.He looked up,spotting the bucket he hadleft lying on the shore.

"Oh, that's right! I was supposed to be getting water for ramen. Ramen? Boy, am I ever hungry!"

So slightly ADD Naruto quickly got out of the lake (completely unaware that we was covered in water plants and had a fish flopping in his hair), took the bucket and filled it up with water, that had dirty people and fish and who knows what else swimming and peeing in it...gross. Oh well, they'd be boiling it, so the germs would be boiled away. But they would probably use it for drinking water as well. Oh dear...too bad poor Naruto didn't think about all of this.

So Naruto took his water and heaved it back to the campsite, nearly tripping and spilling it on the way, but he was lucky. He didn't spill all the water, because he has main character power. So he's special.

"I'm baaaack!" Naruto announced, grinning ear to ear.

Kakashi stared at Naruto, who was dripping wet, covered in water plants and had the fish still flopping in his hair. "What the bloody hell have you been doing, Naruto?"Kakashi asked, puzzled by Naruto's state.

"Kakashi-sensei, you hypocrite! You were just saying how one shouldn't use bad language!" Sakura cried angrily.

"You're right Sakura, but you've got to check out Naruto's lake-wear here." Kakashi chuckled as he grabbed the fish off Naruto's head. "Well, this will make a good dinner." hesaid thoughtfully as helooked at the fish he was holding.

"But we're having ramen for dinner!" Naruto reminded him.

"Yes, you guys are. But I think I'll stick with the fish." Kakashi replied.

So Kakashi took a sharpened stick, butchered the poor still-flopping fish, lit a fire at the fire pit, and sat down at the campfire to roast it...alive. How cruel.

"Kakashi-sensei, shouldn't you wait until it dies first before you stab it and roast it? It seems kind of cruel." Sakura pointed out.

"It's a cruel world out there, Sakura. Welcome to the world of shinobi." Kakashi merely replied. "Besides, it's just a fish."

Sakura gave an involuntary shudder.

Sasuke emerged from tent. "Hey, can I try roasting that fish?" he asked, and then suddenly stared at the fire where the fish was being roasted over.

"Wait! How did you get that fire going?" Sasuke asked.

"With matches, of course." Kakashi replied.

"You mean those damn things actually made fire?" Sasuke said in disbelief.

"Yes."

"How is it...that I couldn't get those simple sticks to make a fire...how can it be..." Sasuke sat down on a fold-up chair and stared into the fire and mumbled on how he couldn't get the fire started before.

"Hey! How do you turn this stove on?" Naruto asked loudly.

"Turn the knob clockwise, and that will turn the gas on." Kakashi instructed.

"Ok! Umm...which way's counter clock-wise?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, you should really know this by now, you know." Kakashi said exasperatedly, shaking his head.

"Just our luck to have the stupid boy stuck with us!" Sakura huffed. "I'm going to take nap now." she added, heading to the tent.

"So which way is counter clockwise?" Naruto repeated the question in hopes of getting some help.

Sasuke whirled hand around in a clockwise direction. "It's 'this' way, idiot."

"I didn't ask you!" Naruto growled.

But Naruto followed Sasuke's instructions and turned the gas knob around. The stove emitted a hissing sound that signified that it was on.

"Ok, I did it, but now what? There's still no fire!" Naruto frowned, expecting more instructions from someone.

Sasuke sighed. "Naruto, ever heard of a match?"

"Oh yeah! I forgot about that!"

Naruto rummaged through the camping box for a few moments and found a box of matches. "Alright! I'm ready to go!"

Naruto struck a match, but what he did not know was that he had left the gas running for a few moments, which is a lot of time for gas to travel around in the air, and it filled up all the air around Naruto. And you all know what that means.

"Naruto, NO!" Kakashi cried out.

But Naruto lowered the match near the cooking stove and there was a loud "Foom!" as the fire blew upwards into Naruto, almost completely burning his eyebrows off.

Naruto screamed. "What the hell? It blew up on me!"

"Here, let me make dinner." Kakashi offered as he handed the fish on a stick to Sasuke. "Sasuke, hold my fish. Please don't eat it, and make sure nothing happens to it." Kakashi ordered.

"What did I do wrong?" Naruto asked.

"You left that gas running while looking for matches, that's what you did wrong. Luckily you jumped out of the fire pretty quickly, so you didn't really get burned much." Kakashi replied. "Just sit down, and don't touch anything."

Slightly smoky and blackened, Naruto sheepishly smiled and sat down while Kakashi made the ramen.

Kakashi lit the stove with no problems, and put the water on, making everything go well, or at least he thought it did. One thing was that Kakashi didn't read the instructions, so he didn't use enough water. He poured in the noodles and mixture, but during the 3-minute wait for the ramen noodles to soften, Kakashi took his book and wandered off to the campfire. Therefore, the 3-minute wait turned into a 10-minute wait instead.

"Kakashi-sensei! I think the water's boiling!" Naruto called out.

And surely enough, the water was boiling...right out of the pot and onto the ground.

"Oh crap!" Kakashi cursed as he ran over to the stove, quickly removed the ramen from the heat. When he peered into the pot, the ramen noodles were half burnt and stuck to the bottom and the noodle broth was almost completely gone, as it had been boiled out. And this children, is why you read the instructions when trying to cook something.

Kakashi took a deep breath. "Ok...I can fix that!"

"Fix what, Kakashi-sensei? Is the ramen ready yet?" Naruto asked.

"Uh...no, not yet." Kakashi replied.

Kakashi put some more water into the pot andtook back his fish (Or what was left of it, as Sasuke was eating it despite that Kakashi had told him not to.) So he took back the remaining fish, cut it up into pieces, and threw them into the ramen. Next he took some onions, chopped them up, and threw them into the ramen, since most of the flavouring had been boiled out of it. Oh yeah, and he added some wasabi too for more flavouring.

"There. Hopefully that's ramen-ish enough." Kakashi said to himself.

Naruto didn't see any of this, as he was squatting down on the ground, preoccupied with a squirrel that wandered into the campsite and was imitating its each and every move.

Sasuke stared at ramen longingly where the fish had been dropped in.  
"Dammit, that fish was good...and now it's ruined." The Uchiha muttered to himself

The Ramen _still_ didn't look quite complete to Kakashi. "Since we're camping, we may as well live off the land."

With that statement said, Kakashi took a fern, pulled it's leaves off, and sprinkled them into the ramen.

Sakura emerged from her tent, after taking a short nap. She looked around the campsite and saw Kakashi, smiling while cooking a heavily smoking pot of ramen, Sasuke staring into the fire, mumbling weird inaudible things, and Naruto crouching on the ground and making squirrel sounds.

Sakura shook her head. "I take a short nap and I come back, and already my team has lost their sanity from this camping trip."

"Dinner time!" Kakashi announced. He looked down at Naruto crouching on the ground. "Naruto, get those things out of your mouth!"

Naruto looked up, muffling an "Mmph?" in reply before he spat out the acorns andnuts that he had stuffed into his mouth earlier.

Sasuke rose from the campfire, scaring Naruto's squirrel friend off and sat down at the picnic table. Naruto and Sakura sat down as Kakashi split up the ramen into three bowls for them.

"Alright, eat up kids." Kakashi smiled.

Naruto stared into his ramen bowl.

"...You burnt it!"

"Eww..." Sakura cringed as she looked at the ramen.

"You destroyed my fish. Thanks a lot." Sasuke grumbled.

"That was my fish, Sasuke." Kakashi corrected the sulky genin. "And you can't say that the ramen's gross until you've tried it. I'm sure it tastes great!"

"They why don't you eat it?" Sasuke challenged.

"Well...err..." Kakashi was lost on what to say. "I'm not hungry right now." he finished lamely.

"You're so bad at cooking that you can't even eat your own cooking!" Naruto scoffed.

"They call you one of Konoha's greatest shinobi, yet you can't even overcome the small feat of cooking a simple dinner? How do you survive on your own!" Sakura exclaimed partially in disbelief and partially in shame.

"Hey, I tried. Give me credit for that." Kakashi defended.

"I'm not eating it!" Naruto frowned as he crossed his arms.

"Alright then. You can go hungry." Kakashi replied.

"Fine! I will!"

Sasuke was the only one brave enough to try the ramen. He actually ate the whole bowl. The freak.

"The fish ramen didn't actually taste that bad." Sasuke commented.

"Well, I'm glad that somebody here appreciates my cooking." Kakashi said as he smiled.

"I have tasted better though." Sasuke added, wiping the smile off ofthe silver-haired man's face.

Naruto gaped at Kakashi. "You put a FISH in it? Sensei, what kind of a cook are you?"

"A very bad one, obviously." Kakashi replied.

"No kidding!" Sakura added, grimicing at the ramen in her bowl again.

Sasuke went to sit down by the burnt-out campfire.

"Hey sensei? Are we still going to have our campfire?" Sakura asked.

"Oh yeah! We still have to sing songs, and roast marshmallows, and make hot chocolate!" Naruto exclaimed as he remembered.

"Ah, yes. Good plan" Kakashi nodded and smiled. "I'll start on the hot chocolate right now."

"NO!" Sakura and Naruto cried.

"Hmm? But didn't you just say you wanted-" Kakashi started.

Sakura interrupted, "Oh yes! But, how about I make it instead, ok?"

Naruto nodded his head vigorously. "Yeah! Yeah! You just go relax and read that porn book of yours. We'll take care of everything!"

Kakashi frowned at the term, "porn book", but he put that aside. "Alright then, but let me at least light the stove for you. I don't want another one of you guys going up in flames."

So Kakashi lit the stove while Naruto wandered over to the campfire where Sasuke was sitting. He noticed something sharp and shiny lying among the small log pile. He picked it up to discover that it was an axe.

"Ooh! A firewood chopper!" Naruto grinned. He took a piece of firewood and stood it up on its side.

"Alright! Time to get chopping!"Naruto swung the axe above his head and struck at the piece of firewood, cracking it.

"Don't chop yourself, idiot." Sasuke smirked.

"Ha! Like I'd do such a thing! Only an idiot would be stupid enough to do that!" Naruto replied back at Sasuke.

Naruto swung the axe high again to bring it down upon the wood, but this time it didn't hit the wood.

"OH MY GOD! MY LEG!" Naruto screamed out in pain.

"…And he said only an idiot would be stupid enough to do that." Sasuke muttered, shaking his head.

"Naruto, you idiot!" Kakashi cried as he ran over to where Naruto was, the axe stuck in his right leg.

"You're supposed to swing the axe standing with your feet apart, not together! Just great…" Kakashi groaned. "Now we're going to have to pull out of here and get you to a hospital."

"Awww, and just when the camping trip was get fun too!" Sakura moaned.

"Way to ruin the trip, dumb ass." Sasukescolded Naruto.

"But it was an accident!" Naruto moaned as he sobbed.

"Wait." Kakashi said suddenly. "Maybe we can still stay here. Naruto, hold still so I can get that axe out of your leg.

"It hurts!" Naruto cried.

Kakashi took hold of the axe and pulled it out.

Naruto screamed very loudly. "Kakashi-sensei, are you trying to kill me, you-"

Blood splattered onto Sasuke.

"Watch where you spill that blood!" Sasuke said irritably.

"Kakashi-sensei, now he's just going bleed even more!" Sakura cried.

"Watch and learn, Sakura." Kakashi told the pink-haired kunoichi.

And surely enough, as Kakashi had predicted, Naruto's Kyuubi powers started healing his leg.

Naruto watched himself heal. "So that still works here! How come?"

"Don't ask questions. It doesn't make sense to me either." Kakashi replied.

"How did he do that?" Sakura asked in disbelief, still not knowing about Naruto's Kyuubi powers.

"I'm magic!" Naruto grinned. That answer obviously didn't satisfy Sakura, but she prodded no further.

"Hey! I feel better now! Let's have a campfire now!" Naruto grinned as he hopped back up on his feet. "Hey Sakura-chan! Is the hot chocolate almost ready?"

"Less than five minutes ago, he was screaming his head off in pain. And now he wants hot chocolate? That idiot never fails to amaze me." Sasuke muttered to himself.

_To be continued..._

ADD stands for Attention Deflect Disorder. A type of illness where one is easily distracted from their original task. (I don't know if I actually needed to explain that, but whatever. Just in case anyone reading this didn't know what ADD was.)

All of you review if you wish to see the next chapter. C'mon, help me out here guys! Please?


	10. The Campfire

Thanks again for your reviews guys. Keep it up!

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Probably a good thing that I don't too._

An over-ecstatic Naruto, a cheerful Sakura, a reluctant Sasuke, and...Kakashi, were all sitting around the campfire with their marshmallows, staring up at the starry sky. Well, Naruto was more like singing and teaching a bunch of crazy campfire songs to Kakashi, who was ever-reading his dirty novel. Sakura had somehow managed to block Naruto's singingout.

"This is the life!" Sakura sighed happily as she gazed up at the stars.

"I could think of a million other places I would rather be right now." Sasukesaid in annoyance.

Kakashi hit Sasuke for his negative comment.

"Ow!" Sasuke yelped. "Uh...yeah. Sure is the life, dammit." Sasuke growled. "Pass me another gram cracker."

Sakura handed Sasuke a gram cracker, willing to his commands.

"Why don't you make smores out of them? You know, with chocolate and marshmallows?" Sakura suggested.

"I hate sweets." Sasuke replied.

"Oh…that's too bad." Sakura said. She sipped some of her hot chocolate, leaned back in her chair and sighed.

"Isn't this beautiful and peaceful? Just gazing up at the stars, away from it all, and listening to the sounds of night-time nature?"

Naruto was singing in his off-tone voice. "Great green globs of greasy grimy gopher guts, mutilated monkey meat"

Kakashi was singing along as well, "Petrified porous pus. Great green-"

"No, you sung it all wrong!" Naruto cut in.

"I don't care." Kakashi replied, shrugging.

Sakura twitched angrily at the irony of her statement.

"Yes. Very nature-like indeed." Sasuke grumbled. He suddenly clutched his stomach and groaned, "Oh man…"

"Sasuke-kun? Are you alright?" Sakura asked in concern.

"My stomach...I feel...sick..." Sasuke groaned. "Thanks a lot Kakashi-sensei...you gave me food poisoning with that screwed-up ramen of yours!"

"You said you liked it though." Kakashi said, a trace of disappointment in his voice.

"Like I said before, I've tasted way better. I was just really hungry!" Sasuke growled.

Naruto leapt up from his chair in excitement. "Ooh! Ooh! Is Sasuke going to puke again? Cool!"

"Doubt it. I think I'll be ok now." Sasuke replied.

"Alright then, let's sing another campfire song then!"

"Hoo boy..." Sakura groaned, ready to plug her ears.

Naruto grabbed a stick off the ground and held it to his mouth like a microphone and started to sing at the top of his lungs. Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi cringed at Naruto's horrible off-keyvoice but nevertheless, let him sing for a few moments.

"Make it stop…" Sasuke grumbled, covering both of his ears.

Sakura looked ready to rise up to pummel Naruto. But before any chaos of that sort could ensue, Kakashi rose fromhis chairand brought a hand up to Naruto's mouth, covering it and stifling Naruto's campfire song.

"Ok, that's enough for tonight. It's time for bed." Kakashi announced.

"But I was just getting to the good part!" Naruto whined.

"Can't we stay up a little longer, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura pleaded.

"Nope. We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow." Kakashi replied.

"Why? What are we doing?" Sasuke asked, fearing the answer.

"We're going on a hike tomorrow and we'll probably go canoeing too if we have time." Kakashi told him.

"A hike?" Sakura echoed.

"Oh goody..." Sasuke sarcastically grumbled.

"A hike? I'm good at that stuff! Believe it!" Naruto exclaimed.

"That's good to hear, now get into your tents guys. And if you need anything, just knock on my tent." Kakashi told the three genins.

"Um, sensei? How can you knock on a tent?" Sakura asked.

"Whatever." Kakashi shrugged. "Just come by and get me if you need me. And stay in your tents and don't wander off. Otherwise there will be blood..."

"What?" Naruto stared at Kakashi, confused.

"Just stay in your tents please. I mean it." Kakashi sighed.

So the 3 ninjas proceeded to their tents of doom, while Kakashi put the fire out with a bucket of water, as well as accidently dumping some water on his foot. As the 3 genins settled into their sleeping bags, another dispute broke out among them.

"Naruto, I want the middle!" Sakura whined.

"But I already said that I was going to have it!" Naruto objected.

"I thought we already went over this." Sasuke groaned, trying to block out the bickering of the two.

Sakura sighed in defeat. She couldn't contradict Sasuke. Oh-no, not him!

"Fine then. Naruto, move over a bit. You're pushing me against the side of the tent."

Naruto obeyed and shuffled over.

"And shut that flashlight off!" she added testily.

"But I'm reading!" Naruto said.

"Since when do you read?" Sasuke asked, half-teasing, half surprised.

"It's just stupid comic books." Sakura told him.

"It's not stupid! And it's not comic books either! It's manga! Repeat after me Maaaan-ga!" Naruto told Sakura.

"You don't have to sound it out for me. I'm not stupid! I'm the smartest one on the team!" Sakura told Naruto in a prideful tone of voice.

"Naruto, turn the light off." Sasuke ordered.

"Why do you have to side with her?" Naruto frowned. But he turned his flashlight off, as no one dares to oppose the "great" Sasuke that far.

"Thank you." Sakura said, finally happy to get some rest.

"You're welcome, princess." Naruto replied sarcastically. This earned a painful whack on the head from none other than Sakura's fist.

They quietly lay for a few moments (minus Naruto sitting on his sleeping bag instead of laying in it), when suddenly a loud "whump!" was heard outside of the tent, followed shortly by a groan.

"What was that? What was that?" Sakura cried panicking.

"Calm down, it's probably only a bear." Sasuke replied.

"A bear?" Sakura cried in fear. "Oh-no! Not a bear! Anything but that! Wait, what's a bear like anyways? We don't get them back in Konoha, do we?"

"Why do I even bother?" Sasuke groaned.

"And she said she was the smartest one of our team!" Naruto laughed.

"I bet you don't know what a bear is like either, you dumb ass." Sasuke scowled.

"Is it a bear outside though?" Sakura shivered, asmore movementwas heard outside ofthe tent.

"Who's out there? Who and what are you? Come out, you stupid bear! I'll clobber you!" Naruto shouted loudly. "You won't dare mess with me, because I'm going be the Hokage! And if you mess with us, I'll-"

"It's just me guys." came Kakashi's reply from outside the tent. "I tripped over the peg line of my tent an fell over."

"I just knew those peg lines were an accident waiting to happen!" Sakura shouted back. "Well, at least it wasn't a bear after all." she sighed in relief, laying back down in her sleeping bag.

"Hey guys, let's tell ghost stories!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Hey guys, let's not!" Sasuke irritably shot back.

"Well, you're no fun, as usual." Naruto scoffed. "Hey Kakashi-sensei! Wanna tell ghost stories?"

"No. Go to sleep, Naruto." came Kakashi's reply.

"...Well this sucks." Naruto frowned. "I'm stuck here with a bunch of party poopers. I'm going to sleep."

"Well that's the best idea you've had all night, Naruto." Sasuke said, half smirking in relief as he lay back down in his sleeping bag.

Naruto stuck his tongue out at Sasuke, not that he could see as it was dark in the tent, but it nevertheless satisfied Naruto.

Naruto had been sitting on his sleeping bag all this time, so he clambered into his sleeping bag headfirst. That's right. He went in the wrong way. On purpose? Who knows…

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura asked in exasperation, wanting to get to sleep.

"Just ignore him. He's looking for attention again." Sasuke said.

"Am not! I'm just trying to get to sleep!" Naruto defended.

"Well, you're in the sleeping bag the wrong way!" Sakura told Naruto.

"Who cares? Good night!" replied Naruto.

5 minutes later, gasping sounds were coming from Naruto's sleeping bag.

"Naruto, remove yourself from the sleeping bag before you suffocate yourself and die." Kakashi called out from his tent to Naruto's.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura called out. "I thought you were asleep!"

"Not when I'm at the most exciting part of my book!" Kakashi called back. "Anyways, you guys should be sleeping, so goodnight."

"Goodnight, sensei!" Sakura called back. Inner Sakura shouted inside, "That stupid jerk! Telling us to go to sleep while he gets to stay up and read that dirty book! Dammit!"

Sasuke removed suffocating Naruto from his sleeping bag.

"Goodnight." Sasuke replied to Kakashi.

Naruto was gasping for air as he spoke, "Good...night...sensei!" and then collapsed down onto his sleeping bag. "Whew! I thought I was going to be dead for sure!" Naruto gasped.

"That's right, trust Naruto to get himself into a sleeping bag in the dark!" Sakura scoffed.

"I knew what I was doing!" Naruto retorted.

"Ok, guys. Shut up and sleep." Sasuke told the two bickering shinobi.

Sakura nodded, replying with, "ok!" and lay back down.

"Good night, Sasuke!" Naruto said, once again, sticking out his tongue out at Sasuke, but again, Sasuke can't see this, as it was too dark for him to see Naruto's face, so there was no point. But it made Naruto happy anyways.

"Goodnight, Sakura-chan!" Naruto grinned.

Sakura didn't reply.

So the three lay there for about 10 minutes or so, drifting off to sleep, when suddenly...

_scratch scratch scratch..._

"What was that? What was that?" Naruto cried.

"What was what?" Sakura mumbled.

_scratch scratch scratch_

"That!" Naruto cried. "I think it's scratching the side of our tent, like it's trying to get in or something!"

"What is it? It might kill us! What do we do?" Sakura freaked out.

"Oh geez..." Sasuke grumbled. "It's probably just a raccoon."

"But what if it gets into the tent and tries to scratch our faces off? I can't have my pretty face destroyed!" Sakura wailed.

Naruto giggled quietly, trying to smother his laughter into his pillow.

"Shut up, Naruto! This isn't a laughing matter!" Sakura cried angrily.

"Naruto, stop scratching the side of the tent!" Sasuke suddenly said angrily.

"But I swear it wasn't me!" Naruto objected. But a few seconds later, Naruto burst out laughing. "Oh man! You guys actually fell for it! I really had you guys fooled for a moment!"

"Naruto! I'll destroy you!" Sakura screamed angrily, punching Naruto…in the dark I might add, which does take skill.

"Geez, no one around here can take a joke!" Naruto grumbled, rubbing his wounded cheek.

And so a battered Naruto retreated within his sleeping bag without another word.

15 minutes later, weird growling and other odd sounds were heard.

"What was that?' Naruto cried.

"Naruto, stop that stupid trick before I bash your face in again!" Sakura growled.

"But it's not me! I'm serious this time!" Naruto pleaded, not wanting another punch in the face.

Sasuke groaned.

They were hearing the upset growling and gurgling of Sasuke's stomach, reacting to themalformed ramen he had for dinner.

"Uh-oh, looks likeSasuke's gonna be sick! Ha ha ha!" Naruto laughed out loud.

"...This is going to be a long night" Sasuke moaned, stomach churning, making him want to throw up. "I'm going to kill Kakashi in the morning for this!" Sasuke growled as he ran out of the tent to upchuck his dinner.

_To be continued..._

I apologize if there's any mistakes in this chapter, as I rushed proof-reading it a bit since I wanted to getthe chapterup before I go away. This will be the last chapter that's going up for about a week, as I'll be away. But review lots while I'm gone! It'll make me very happy to see my e-mail box full of reviews when I return home! Next chapter will be up on Saturday most likely. Now review! Pretty please?


	11. The breakfast

Thanks for all of your reviews, guys! It was really nice to come back home see a bunch of them waiting to be read. Now without further ado, here is chapter 11, ready to be read and enjoyed!

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. (What a surprise!)_

The next morning, Naruto woke up with zest, while his other two team-mates groggily emerged from the tent, finding Kakashi cooking breakfast over the stove.

"Oh my god!" Sakura cried as she ran over to Kakashi, fearing that he would screw up breakfast like he had done with dinner the previous night and did not want to spend the rest of the day puking up her breakfast, like Sasuke had done with is dinner for half of the night.

"Let me handle breakfast, sensei. I'm a great cook!" Sakura told Kakashi, grinning nervously. "Why don't you go back to bed and rest up? You look awfully tired!"

"That's kind of you, Sakura. But I can handle it, and I don't feel tired at all either." Kakashi replied as he smiled.

"But I like cooking, and I'm really good at cooking-" Sakura was cut off as she looked into the frying pan. "-fish?"

That's right. Sakura hadn't really seen what Kakashi was cooking, but now that she actually came up to the stove, she could see Kakashi cooking the still-living fish in a hot frying pan, flipping it like a pancake. Yes, a frying pan meant for pancakes, but they're camping here.

Sakura stared at Kakashi before she could say anything.

"You don't eat fish for breakfast! And you don't cook them ALIVE! Couldn't you at least put it out of its misery quickly instead of making it suffer a slow and painful death? You sadist!" Sakura burst out crying

"Oh, alright. If it makes you that upset." Kakashi sighed.

Kakashi took the half-dead fish, lay it on the table, raised the frying pan, and knocked it square on the head, putting the fish out of it's misery.

"There. Quick, painless, and now dead. Happy?" Kakashi asked.

Sakura stopped crying for a moment and looked at the fish that had just had its head smashed in, a bit blood trickling out of its pummelled head. She burst out crying again.

Kakashi sighed, "Women are so hard to please."He put the dead fish back in frying pan and began to cookit again.

"What's that you cooking for breakfast, sensei?" Naruto asked as he sathimself down at the picnic table

"A fish." Kakashi replied.

"Wow! With camping, you really can have anything to eat for meals!" Naruto said in awe. "Can I have ramen for breakfast?"

"Sure. Go ahead. You're going to have to make it yourself though." Kakashi replied.

"Sweet!" Naruto cried ashe ran back to his tent to grab an instant ramen cup that he had stashed away in his luggage bag. That's right, he kept a cup of ramen in his tent for some odd reason.

Sakura was still sobbing. "The poor fish! Why couldn't you just let it be?" Sakura cried.

"Welcome to the wilderness, Sakura. Survival of the fittest. Gotta eat to live." Kakashi merely replied.

"But we have all of THIS!" Sakura pointed to the three cereal boxes that lay on the picnic table

"...True, but I think living off the land sometimes while camping makes it more interesting and fun. Besides, I myself am not a fan of sugary cereals.

"Sugary cereals? Woah! I forgot all about those!" Naruto exclaimed as he abandoned his ramen cup and went straight for the Lucky Charms cereal.

"Hey Sasuke, breakfast is ready. Are you coming to eat?" Kakashi asked Sasuke, who was sitting at the picnic table.

"Don't even talk to me! I'm never eating anything cooked by you again!" Sasuke snarled at Kakashi while giving the copy-nin his best glare, though it was a rather pathetic-looking one as he had just been sick the whole night, so it looked more like a groggy-sickly-hung over-confused stare. Too tired to stay to his word of "Killing Kakashi in the morning", he stormed off into his tent to get some more sleep.

"Wow! Fish and cereal together! This is so cool!" Naruto grinned.

Sakura burst out crying again.

"Huh? What did I say?" Naruto asked, confused.

"Sakura, it was just a fish. How long is this going to go on for?" Kakashi asked.

"Well maybe it'll go on the whole trip!" Sakura sniffed, stubbornly crossing her arms.

"Sakura, you're pathetic!" Sasuke shouted from the tent.

" ...Ok, I'm over it!" Sakura said, putting on her most cheerful and fake smile and sat down to have some cereal.

"Well that was quick." Kakashi commented.

Naruto meanwhile, was having fun taking the marshmallow shapes from the cereal and trying to name what they were.

"This one's a pot of gold, just like on the box! And here's a horseshoe! Oh, and this one's a rainbow! And...what's this? Hey Sakura? What shape is this?" Naruto asked, holding an odd-shaped marshmallow in her face.

"How would I know? Just let me eat my breakfast!" Sakura replied angrily.

"Someone sure got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!" Naruto grumbled.

"What are you talking about? It's not like I have a bed to sleep in here!" Sakura said angrily and then started to cry a little.

"She's not enjoying this whole camping thing, is she?" Naruto said to himself.

Naruto took the oddly shaped marshmallow and showed it to Kakashi. "Hey Kakashi-sensei! What shape is this?"

Kakashi took it from Naruto to look at it. "Well whatever it is, it's mine now!" He smiled and quickly popped the marshmallow in his mouth. Through his mask, yes. Don't ask how or why.

"Hey, not bad for cereal! Maybe this sugary cereal is good stuff after all." Kakashi grinned.

"Hey! That was mine! And you never told me what shape it was!" Naruto complained.

Kakashi thought for a moment "...It was a pinecone."

"No it wasn't! It didn't look anything like a pinecone! And a pinecone isn'ta marshmallow shape thatLucky Charms would have!"

"I don't see why it couldn't be in the shape of a pinecone." Kakashi said as he began picking out the marshmallows in Naruto's cereal bowl and popping them into his mouth. "You know, these marshmallows are pretty tasty." He commented.

"Hey! Go get your own bowl! Or why don't you eat that fish you cooked up there!" Naruto cried angrily.

"I already ate it." Kakashi replied.

"How do you eat so fast? I never saw you-"

"Could you two just SHUTUP!" Sakura screamed.

Naruto and Kakashi stared at Sakura, startled for a moment before she lay her head down in her arms, clearly upset over something. Most likely Sasuke, the fish, or the fact that she didn't have a nice bed to sleep in. Or maybe it was a bit of all three of those things.

"I think we should poke her." Kakashi said after a long silent moment.

"Why?" Naruto asked.

"I dunno." Kakashi replied lamely.

"Are you sure you cooked that fish enough before you ate it?" Naruto asked, worrying about his sensei's sanity.

"I dunno...tasted good enough to me" Kakashi replied.

"But if you didn't cook it enough, you'llget that 'trickynoso' disease or whatever it's called!"

"It's called 'trichinosis' Naruto, and you don't get it from undercooked fish. You get it from undercooked pigs."

"Oh...okay then! I actually learned something new today!"

"That's rich coming from you." Sakura grumbled moodily.

Naruto finished his breakfast and began to wander around the campsite, looking at plants and interacting with squirrels again.

Sakura finally stopped moping and began to eat her lucky charms.She came across the same odd marshmallow shape that Naruto had come across earlier.

" ...What shape IS this thing?" Sakura wondered out loud.

"Just pretend it's a pine cone." Kakashi told her.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, I think you'll like this!" Naruto called out."Check out this huge butt-ugly dog I found! Maybe you can add him to your pack of nin-ken!(1)"

Naruto was crouching down a few feet away from the picnic table, holding out some cereal to what wasn't a dog but-

"Naruto, that's a bear!" Kakashi cried out.

_To be continued... _

(1) Just a note for those who might not know that _nin-ken_ means 'ninja dog(s)', like the kind that Kakashi summons.

Now...review if you wish to sleep soundly tonight!


	12. The bears

This story almost has 70 reviews now, and that's pretty damn awesome! Thanks a lot guys for your positive reviews. I'm very glad that you're enjoying this fanfic.

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or its characters, blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda. Ok, on with the story now!_

"Here doggy doggy doggy!" Naruto called out to the bear."Hey Kakashi-sensei! It almost looks like Pakkun times a hundred!"

"You idiot! That's not a dog!" Sakura shouted.

"Get the hell away from that thing before it kills you!" Kakashishouted out to Naruto.

"What do you mean? It's not going to hurt me!" Naruto grinned, still stupidly holding out the cereal on the palm of his hand near the bear's nose. But surely enough, the bear swiped its paw at Naruto, who luckily rolled out of the way.

"Oh my god! It tried to kill me!" Naruto screamed.

"Of course it did! It's bear, stupid! They kill people!" Sakura shouted as she threw her hands up in the air.

"Hey you stupid bear! Who the hell do you think you are trying to kill me? Do you know who I am? I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the future Hokage! Believe it!" Naruto shouted out his famous statement to the uncomprehending bear.

And next, Naruto did the stupid thing by approaching the bear. "So if you think that I'm going let you get the better of me, you better-"

Kakashi quickly grabbed Naruto before he could finish his speech off. "Naruto, the bear doesn't give a damn who you are! Unless you have a death wish to get mauled to pieces, stay back here, away from the bear."

"But we can kick its ass, no problem! Believe it!" Naruto objected.

"Naruto, we don't have our ninja skills here, remember?" Sakura reminded him.

"Oh yeah...damn it!"

So the three shinobi stood back as the bear growled angrily and sniffed around their camp. At this point, another bear entered the campsite and also began sniffing around.

"Get the hell out of here, you stupid-" Naruto began, but Sakura covered up Naruto's mouth.

"Naruto, be quiet! Do you want it to come over here and kill us?"

The first bear nosed off the lid of a box that contained the food. It took out a pack of ramen with it's teeth, ripped it open, and began eating the raw noodles it spilt on the ground.

"Hey! That's my lunch! How dare you try to eat my lunch! I'm going to kill you for that!" Naruto shouted angrily.

"Naruto! If you try to kill it, it's going kill you!" Sakura said, her fists shaking.

"Could you guys be quiet? I'm trying to sleep..." Sasuke called out from the tent.

The second bear sniffed at the food box and began to drag it off.

"Our food! You can't get away with that! Especially my ramen!" Naruto shouted, now in a rage and lunged at the bear

"Be quiet!" Sasuke shouted, half-asleep.

Sakura grabbed Naruto, holding him back. "Don't be an idiot! Why can't you just stay clam, like the rest of us? You don't see me freaking out or Kakashi-sensei trying to kill the bears!" Sakura scolded Naruto as she pointed to where Kakashi was standing.

But as Sakura looked over to where she was pointing, she did not see Kakashi there. Instead, she saw their crazy sensei trying to sneak up behind the food box-stealing bear, holding a frying pan in his hand.

Sakura stared with her mouth gaping open. "...I don't believe it! Who would be stupid enough to-"

"Yeah! Go get him, sensei!" Naruto cheered.

"Shut up!" Sasuke angrily shouted.

Kakashi made mad waving motions with his hands to tell them to shut up, as ninjas are supposed to be stealthy. But the bear unfortunately had turned to see what Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke's shouting was all about around and saw Kakashi.

"Whack him real hard, sensei! Swing that frying pan around and send him crying home!" Naruto shouted, throwing his fists into the air and shouting.

Kakashi cursed under his breath and swung the frying pan at the bear's head as fast and as hard as he could. The bear gave a roar of pain and tried to swipe at Kakashi. Too bad he was too fast for the bear.

Naruto also took his step of action. He happened to find a large stick (or tree branch, really) on the ground. He ran up to the first bear that was snacking on the last of his ramen packages and whacked the bear as hard as he could with the branch repeatedly.

"You stupid bear! You ate my ramen! I'm going to kill you and become Hokage! Believe it!" Naruto shouted.

"Stop that before it gets pissed off and kills you first! And what does killing bears have to do with becoming hokage anyways?" Sakura shouted out, refusing to take no action in harassing the bears and saving the food.

"Shut the hell up out there!" Sasuke groggily shouted.

Kakashi managed to somehow kick and hit the bear enough so that it actually ran away. However, not without the bear dragging off the food box. And now the second bear was going toward Sasuke's tent. Oh, the horror!

Naruto was poking the bear with the tree branch, though it seemed unaware of it and kept wandering over to the tent.

"Die bear! Die!" Naruto shouted.

Sakura growled, finally having enough. "Naruto, that's not how you attack a bear! Let me show you!"

Sakura did a deranged war cry as she charged towards the tent the bear was headed at. "Don't worry, Sasuke-kun! I'll save you!" Sakura cried, running towards the bear. Heavens knows if should would be able to do anything to the bear.

But luckily, a half asleep but extremely grouchy Sasuke burst out of the tent, and slammed his fist into what he thought was either Sakura's or Naruto's face, but was really the bear's face.

"God dammit! Can't I get some freakin' peace and quiet around here?" Sasuke shouted, looking extremely pissed off and sleepy at the same time.

The bear took off into the bushes, moaning in pain from Sasuke's angered fist implant in its face. Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi stared at Sasuke in half amazement and half fear.

"Shut up and lemmie sleep now." Sasuke said in a slurred type of voice, indicating his lack and need of sleep. So unaware of what he had just done, Sasuke stumbled back into the tent, fell onto his sleeping bag and immediately fell asleep.

"Well that was...unexpected." Kakashi said, breaking the silence.

"Sasuke-kun is so awesome!" Sakura gushed.

"All gone..." Naruto mumbled.

"What are you talking about?" Sakura asked, annoyed with Naruto ruining the moment.

"All...gone...ramen...ALL GONE!" Naruto wailed as he broke out in tears.

"It was just noodles, Naruto. We have plenty of other food. It's not like we're not going to starve!" Sakura told Naruto.

"Well, actually..." Kakashi corrected. "Those bears took or ate pretty much most of the food we had with us. "

Sakura stared at Kakashi for a moment before speaking. "...You're kidding, right?"

"I really wish I was, Sakura. I really wish I was." Kakashi said as he shook his head.

A pained and furious roar from one of the bears a short distance off came from the woods.

"And that would be one of the bears getting into the wasabi right about now." Kakashi announced. "I'll go see what food I can pick up."

With that, Kakashi took off into the forest to retrieve the food.

"I can't believe we're almost out of food! How can this be possible?" Sakura cried.

Sakura was going into a fit of hysteria while Naruto crouched on the ground, brooding.

"My ramen...it ate all of my ramen..." Naruto mumbled.

"How the hell can you worry about your stupid noodles when we lost our whole food supply!" Sakura screamed angrily at the brooding blonde.

Sleep-deprived Sasuke walked out of the tent in a foul mood as Sakura was shaking ramen-deprived Naruto by the shoulders.

"I fall asleep for a few blissful moments, and then you two start screaming at each other! I swear, I can't get any freaking sleep with you guys squabbling at then top of your lungs. So I'm just going to give up trying to fall asleep anymore."

"You shut up, you selfish bastard before I get mad!" Naruto growled at Sasuke.

"What's your problem? You slept fine last night!" Sasuke snarled, with a hint of envy in his voice.

"Sasuke!Two bears came into our campsite and stole all of our food! What are we going to do?" Sakura cried.

Sasuke immediately snapped out of his groggy and angered mood.

"...What did you just say?"

_To be continued... _

Review or angry hungry bears will raid you of all your ramen!


	13. The shelters

Hey guys! Thanks again for the reviews! (Those of you who are reading this fanfic and aren't reviewing, please review! It's not that difficult. Please?) Anyhoo, this chapter and the next one are going to be longer than usual. And this will probably be the last chapter for about 2 weeks, as I'm going (guess where?) camping. Who knows? Maybe I'll get some new inspiration and ideas for this story. So hang in there for 2 weeks folks, unless I can find a computer in a nearby hotel, then I'll be able to get another chapter up sooner. (It's the U.S. There's bound to be a computer nearby, right? Ok, that was a bit of a burn I suppose. Sorry America.) Hope you enjoy this chapter!

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Too bad for me, good for me._

Sasuke was speechless when Sakura explained to him what had happened to all of the food. He quickly got over it however and finally spoke.

"We can just drive to some convenience store. I saw one yesterday about an hour before we hit these campgrounds."

Sakura lit up immediately, "You're right! We better get Kakashi-sensei to go there once he gets back."

Just then, Kakashi came back into the camp with the food box and a gash on the side of his face and his hair full of twigs.

"Can you believe it? I actually managed to rescue the cheerios and half of the wasabi!" The copy-nin's grin showing in his eyes.

"You have a bleeding gash on your face, you know! Why are you smiling?" Sakura angrily shouted, upset that a cereal box and wasabi were the only things rescued.

"Yay! We're not going to starve anymore!" Naruto cheered.

"Idiot! Cereal, tacos, and wasabi aren't enough for us to survive on!" Sakura huffed.

"How did you get that gash on your face anyways, sensei? Did the bears hit you with their huge claws?" Naruto asked excited.

"Actually, no. I just cut myself on a sharp branch that was sticking out when I was running in the forest after the bears."

"Oh...well that's kind of dumb." Naruto said, looking a little crestfallen.

"Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke saw a convenience store on the way here, and we were thinking that we should go to it and get some more food." Sakura informed.

"Yes, I was thinking about that too. I'll drive Michael to go get the groceries. It might not be open today, and if that's the case, we might have to head back to Konoha."

"What?" Naruto cried.

"I said _IF_ it was closed. Most likely it's not so we should be fine. Or if it is closed, we could live off the land instead of going back to Konoha right away." Kakashi suggested.

"Which would mean what?" Naruto questioned.

"That means eating whatever the forest around us has to offer." Kakashi replied with a smile.

Naruto frowned as he looked around, seeing no ramen cups or anything that looked remotely tasty. Just plants, trees, dirt, and rodents.

"Would it be alright if I asked you three to stay here and guard the campsite while I'm gone?" Kakashi requested.

"Sure! Leave it to us, sensei!" Naruto replied with enthusiasm.

"Alright. See you in a couple of hours. And please don't do anything stupid, like wandering off or killing each other."

Kakashi got into Michael, the friggin' big SUV, and began to pull out of the campsite.

"Alright! Now we can party and do whatever the hell we want!" Naruto cheered.

"Naruto! Didn't you hear a word Kakashi-sensei just told us?" Sakura scolded. But Inner Sakura's thoughts were alongside Naruto's, "Alright! Now's the time to go wild while there's no adults around!"

Then Michael started making odd sounds, and stopped completely. Kakashi stepped out of the vehicle. "It appears that Michael has run out of gas." Kakashi announced.

Well, of course Michael ran out of gas, 'cause Michael's a goddamn SUV, and we all know that they take up so much gas, as they're friggin' GAS GUZZLERS! And that's why you get something smaller. Less money, less gas, less pollution. Ok, getting back to the story.

"Without gas, we cannot get to the store, which means we can't even get back home. We'll have to live off the land until another camper comes in and happens to be conveniently carrying some car gas or food" Kakashi told his team.

The three genin stood there for a moment in silence, sucking this all in. Naruto was the first to react.

"You're lying!" Naruto cried.

Sakura wailed at how they would starve and die young, while Sasuke just stood there. He quickly got over the shock and took off into the woods without a word.

"Now Sasuke's left us! Can this get any worse?" Sakura wailed.

"Shh! Don't jinx it, Sakura!" Naruto scolded.

"We're just going to have to make due with what food we recovered from the bears and what food we can find in the forest. So we're going to have to carefully ration our food and eat some fish today for lunch and dinner today and some of our food tomorrow and the following days until we can get help." Kakashi told Naruto and Sakura.

Sasuke emerged from the woods with his hair full of twigs, holding two dead squirrels and a squirming rabbit in his hands.

"Ah, quick thinking, Sasuke. Good job." Kakashi smiled.

"Oh my god! You killed the squirrel I was talking to and made friends with last night before we had dinner!" Naruto exclaimed. "How could you!"

"Naruto, Sasuke had to do it so we could eat!" Sakura told the blonde who was practically in tears. "You did the right thing, Sasuke." She added.

Sasuke handed the squirming rabbit to Kakashi. "I lost my last kunai back in the woods, so you'll have to finish the rabbit off." Sasuke told his sensei.

Kakashi nodded, took out one of his kunai, and butchered the poor little bunny. Sakura looked ready to burst into tears.

"Sensei! How could you kill that poor innocent rabbit?" She cried.

"At least he killed it quickly." Naruto shrugged.

Kakashi's brow furrowed. "Wait. A moment ago, you were scolding Naruto for getting upset for Sasuke killing a squirrel that Naruto befriended and practically made a pet of last night. And now you're getting upset at me for killing a rabbit that you never knew and that we clearly need for food?"

"That's because Sakura's a pathetic suck up and a fool for Sasuke!" Naruto said out loud.

"Shut up, Naruto! It was supposed to live!" Sakura said angrily.

Kakashi sighed, "This is ridiculous. I'm going for a walk."

With that, Kakashi tossed the dead rabbit back to Sasuke, took his fishing rod and went for his "walk".

"If sensei said that he was going for a walk, why did he take his fishing rod with him? Naruto asked.

"He's going to kill more innocent animals! That sadist sensei-" Sakura began with her fists shaking.

"Get a grip, you idiot! Kakashi too lazy and laid back to be a sadist and he's just trying to get us food without you criticizing him for it." Sasuke growled. "Geez, you can be even more of a moron than Naruto sometimes!"

Sakura, looking very hurt and upset, ran off into the tent.

"Way to go, Sasuke! Now you hurt her feelings!"

"So did you, moron. Besides, she needed to shut up and cool down a bit. She can't freak out every time Kakashi-sensei tries to get her some food." Sasuke told Naruto.

"Then why don't you just feed her?" Naruto suggested. "She doesn't seem to mind when you kill animals for food!"

"No, I say that we put her in the forest on her own for a few days to show her that she must kill cute rodents in order to survive. That would teach her a lesson. It'd be amusing as well." Sasuke smirked.

"Nah. She'd probably die from refusing to kill anything for food." Naruto pointed out.

"…Yeah, you're right." Sasuke agreed, trying hard not to laugh, because we all know Sasuke doesn't laugh.

Sakura's loud crying burst out from the tent as she heard all of this.

"That's our cue to leave this camp site for awhile."

"I agree."

So Naruto and Sasuke walked off (Hand in hand if you wish to imagine that, you crazy yaoi fans.) or they just simply walked off, not hand in hand, out of the campsite.

" So...what do you want to do?" Naruto asked.

"I don't really want to do anything. I just want to walk." Sasuke replied. "In fact, I'd like it better if you went away right now."

"That's not very nice!" Naruto pouted.

Sasuke glanced at Naruto, who looked very upset at what he had just said to the blonde fox boy. Sasuke didn't want another emotionally hurt and crying team-mate, so quickly changed his mind.

"I have a better idea, Naruto. We're low on food, so we're going to need more to survive for the next few days. We better go and hunt for some more."

"Really? We'll do that? That sounds awesome!" Naruto exclaimed.

So the two shinobi headed into the woods, where many trees, bugs, creatures, twigs, sticks, and other strange things lay. They walked about in the woods for about 10 minutes before Sasuke saw a squirrel and pointed it out to Naruto.

"Ok, Naruto. You see that? Throw your kunai directly at it." Sasuke instructed.

"But that's the brother of the squirrel that I met last night!" Naruto told him.

Sasuke slapped his fore head in frustration. "Just kill it! We need it more than it needs its life!" Sasuke said, trying to reason with Naruto.

"You don't know that, Sasuke! That squirrel wants to live! TO LIVE!" Naruto cried passionately. By now, ever so passionate Naruto had tears streaming down his face.

Sasuke took Naruto's kunai from his hand and threw it at the squirrel, killing it.

"You killed it! How could you?" Naruto cried angrily.

Sasuke let out a frustrated groan. "You're just as bad as Sakura! Why don't you two go have your crying party back at the campsite already!"

"Fine! I will!" Naruto shouted angrily as he rose up, brushing the twigs and leaves from his pants and began to walk off.

"Geez. Some crummy Hokage he'll make!" Sasuke muttered to himself.

Naruto stopped dead in his tracks and went rigid.

"What...did...you...say?" Naruto said slowly, anger building up.

"I said you're going to make a crappy Hokage!" Sasuke said loudly.

"All right, that's it! You've gone too far you bastard! I'm going to kill you!" Naruto shouted out angrily. Naruto tackled Sasuke, Sasuke punched Naruto, and the both of them wrestled in the dirt.

Meanwhile, Sakura had gotten over crying and came out of the tent. She wondered where everyone one was, but simply sat down on the log near the fire pit. Just then, Kakashi came back carrying 4 fish. Sakura took a deep breath and turned to Kakashi.

"I'm sorry for being rude when you had to kill the rabbit for food." Sakura apologized.

"That's alright." Kakashi replied as he put the fish next to the rabbit and squirrels.

"And I won't get upset when you have to kill rodents for food anymore."

"That's good to know."

"But if you ever try to kill a baby deer or any other baby animal for food, I'll never forgive you!" Sakura added threateningly.

Kakashi stared at her sceptically for a moment before he replied, "...Right." He looked around the campsite. "Where are Naruto and Sasuke?"

"I dunno." Sakura shrugged.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Sasuke had exhausted themselves trying to destroy each other. They both lay on the forest floor, panting.

" We're...getting...no...where...with...this!" Naruto huffed and puffed, trying to speak.

"Na...ruto...what...do...you...say...that we...catch...some food...now?" Sasuke suggested, equally out of breath.

"Yeah...good...idea...Sa...su..ke..."

So after laying on the ground to catch their breath for 5 minutes, the two hungry shinobi worked together, throwing kunai and setting up traps for mice, rabbits, and various other rodents for their food. They only managed to catch one chipmunk in the end that fell for one of their traps. So after two frustrating hours, they went back to the campsite.

Kakashi looked up from his book he was reading as he heard Sasuke and Naruto enter the campsite. "There you two are! Sakura and I were beginning to think that you had drowned in the lake."

"Tch! As if." Sasuke grunted.

"Well it's good that you're here, because I have a little activity planned before we go hiking." Kakashi told his two students.

"And what exactly would this activity be?" Sasuke asked, fearing the answer.

"Yeah! What is it? What is it?" Naruto asked, dying for the answer.

"If you follow me into the forest, I'll explain everything there." Kakashi replied as he picked up a bucket and headed into the trees behind the tent.

"Straight into the bush? This can't be good." Sasuke muttered as he, Naruto, and Sakura followed closely behind.

They walked through the forest for five minutes and finally stopped where some of the trees had parted a bit.

"So what are we going to do?" Sakura asked, curious what their sensei had in mind.

"You guys are going to build shelters." Kakashi told her, smiling.

"What? How?" Naruto asked, confused.

"You three will work as a team to build a shelter by using what the forest provides. You can use branches, logs, duff, whatever you can find in this area of the forest. You want to build it so that it wouldn't leak if a rain storm came by and wouldn't be blown over if a hurricane passed through."

"A hurricane? As if." Sakura scoffed.

"What's duff?" Naruto asked.

"It's the stuff that covers the forest floor, like fallen leaves and twigs. It's useful for keeping the rain out." Kakashi replied, hinting at the last sentence.

"Why are we doing this?" Sasuke asked, arms folded across his chest and looking quite unpleased with the activity.

"If you guys ever get lost in the forest, you'll need to know how to build yourselves a shelter to protect yourself from bad weather like rain, wind, and snow."

"And hurricanes apparently" Sakura snorted.

"Can we start now? Can we? Can we?" Naruto asked, bouncing up in down in excitement.

"Yes, you may start. Off you go guys!"

The three genin took off, running up a nearby slope to find their shelter spot in the forest.

"Naruto, slow down before you trip on a tree root!" Sakura scolded. "It's not like we're pressed for time here, so you can at least slow down a bit."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot." Kakashi called up to them. "You guys will have 10 minutes to build your shelter before I test it, so think of this activity as training and take it seriously. Build your shelters as quickly and efficiently as possible."

"You were saying, Sakura?" Sasuke turned to his team-mate.

"Run like the wind, guys! We've got to find a spot fast!" Sakura shouted. A few seconds later, she tripped on a tree root.

After wasting 4 minutes trying to find a spot that wasn't placed on a slope or right into the bushes, they finally found a small clear spot up the hill with a large log partially sticking up off the ground.

"We finally found a spot! Now how will we build the shelter?" Sakura pondered.

"6 minutes till inspection!" Kakashi called out from somewhere else in the forest.

"Oh shit!" Naruto cried. "We gotta build this thing fast!"

"We'll take those branches over there and prop them against the log on one side. It'll be enough for a shelter." Sasuke told Naruto and Sakura.

They ran over to where some branches lay, took them, and stacked them against the log, forming a slanting type of roof/wall. Naruto ran official as he spotted a log. He bent down and tried to lift it up off the ground.

"What are you doing?" Sakura cried exasperatedly.

"This'll make a great addition to the roof/wall we have!" Naruto replied, straining to lift the log.

"You dope, you'll need more than just yourself to lift that log." Sasuke sighed.

"You're right. And that gives me an idea!" Naruto cried. He stopped heaving the log and did a sign with his fingers.

"Kage bushin no jutsu!"(1)

Naruto waited, expecting many clones of himself to appear, but nothing happened.

"That won't work here, remember?" Sasuke told Naruto.

"Yeah, I forgot about that." Naruto sighed and slumped down on the log. "Damn it! We're never going to get this shelter built."

"4 minutes till 'Hurricane Kakashi' hits!" Kakashi called out.

"A hurricane? Holy crap, we gotta get this shelter finished!" Naruto cried, panicking and trying to lift the log again.

"...'Hurricane Kakashi'? What the hell are you talking about!" Sasuke shouted out to his sensei.

"Hurricanes are given names, remember?" Kakashi shouted back.

"Since when can you send a hurricane to get us?" Naruto shouted challengingly.

"He's just scaring us so we'll build faster, that's all." Sakura assured the blonde boy.

"Or he's just being stupid." Sasuke scoffed, helping Naruto lift the log. "Sakura, you help lift this log too."

The three carried the log to the shelter and propped it up against the primary supporting log. They gathered some more branches and propped them against the primary log, completing the roof/wall. They stood back to admire their work for a few seconds, when suddenly the primary log cracked and collapsed underneath the weight of the newly placed log and branches. Their shelter was completely ruined.

"Well, we're screwed now." Sasuke sighed.

"Oh shit!" Naruto shouted as he ran around in circles. "Shit! Shit! Shit!"

"All of our hard work...gone to waste! No!" Sakura cried.

" 'Hurricane Kakashi' will arrive and hit the forest in 3 minutes!" Kakashi called out.

"Shut up with that "hurricane" crap of yours!" Naruto shouted back angrily. "It's not making it any fun for us like you think it is!"

"Ok, stop freaking out now. Take the branches and stand them up like a triangular tent." Sasuke instructed.

They took the fallen tree branches and stood them up, forming a tent shape.

"What else can we do?" Sakura asked.

"Grab some of that duff stuff off the ground that Kakashi was talking about so we can fill up the spaces between the branches." Sasuke instructed as he picked up some dirt and leaves, stuffing them between the spaces. Naruto and Sakura did the same.

Kakashi called out again, "1 minute until 'hurricane-"

"Shut up! We get it!" Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura shouted back. "Nobody cares!"

"Well, I think it looks ok." Naruto said as he stood back to look at their shelter. "It's small, but it's not like we're going to have to go in it or anything, right?"

"It still looks like it's going to leak though." Sakura said in worry.

"Yeah. There are still some small holes that would let water leak in." Sasuke pointed out.

"Sheesh. Such perfectionists." Naruto grumbled.

" 'Hurricane Kakashi' is now coming!" Kakashi called out as he approached, carrying a bucket.

"Oh crap! I think I know what he might be planning." Sasuke muttered, eying the bucket. Looking around frantically, he quickly pulled Naruto's orange jacket off and threw it over the shelter.

"Hey! What are you doing? That's mine! " Naruto shouted angrily.

"You'll be thankful later!" Sasuke hissed back as Kakashi stopped to look at the shelter, branches crookedly set up, Naruto's orange jacket thrown on top, and the spaces poorly stuffed with leaves, dirt, twigs, and garbage from Naruto's pockets.

"Alright, now to test if this shelter actually works. All three of you will have to get in there now." Kakashi told the three genin.

"We have to WHAT?" Naruto cried, eyeing the small unstable shelter.

"But with three of us in there, we might knock it over!" Sakura pointed out.

"Then maybe you should have thought about building it bigger." Kakashi suggested.

"We would have if you didn't give us such a short time limit!" Naruto shot back angrily.

"And hurricanes don't even hit the forests like these!" Sasuke added.

"I was just trying to make it fun." Kakashi insisted.

"But it wasn't!" The three of them scowled with their arms crossed.

"Alright, I'll quit with the "hurricane" stuff then. Get in your shelter now so I can test it by dumping water on it."

"What?" Naruto and Sakura cried.

"I knew it." Sasuke groaned.

"You better not get us too wet!" Sakura threatened. "Or else!"

"Or else what?" Kakashi asked, mildly interested in what Sakura would have to say.

"Umm...I haven't thought up that part yet." The young kunoichi admitted.

The three genin reluctantly crawled into their small shelter, crammed together, trying not to knock it over.

"Naruto! Get your elbow out of my face!" Sakura hissed.

"I would if Sasuke's butt wasn't in my face!" Naruto hissed back.

"It's not like I'm pleased with the way we're arranged here." Sasuke growled.

"My foot's sticking out of the shelter! It' going to get wet!" Sakura cried.

"Suck it up!" Sasuke ordered.

"Alright, here comes the "rain storm"!" Kakashi announced as he took the bucket he was holding and dumped the water onto the shelter. Water poured through the uncovered spaces and leaked through the duff. Sakura screamed as the cold water splashed onto her.

"I'm completely wet!" Sakura screeched.

"Sasuke, you made him completely soak my jacket!" Naruto cried angrily. "And we still got soaking wet!"

"Well, it was worth a shot I suppose, even if it didn't protect us from getting wet." Sasuke replied. All of them were quite wet as the shelter was poorly built, so half of the dumped water got in the shelter.

"That was a very badly simulated rainstorm, sensei!" Sakura scolded. "Rain doesn't just dump down all at once like that!"

Then the shelter suddenly collapsed on top of them. They were sent into screams and spasms of panic. Yes, even Sasuke was quite frightened.

Kakashi quickly tossed off the fallen branches and dirt, uncovering the three wet, traumatized, and now very angry genins.

"Now wasn't that fun?" Kakashi teased his three students as he smiled. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke looked ready to murder their sensei. "Alright. Now who can tell me what wrong with that shelter?" Kakashi asked his disciples once they had calmed down a bit.

"We didn't stand the branches up properly?" Sakura offered.

"Using garbage to fill the spaces and prevent leaking was a bad idea?" Naruto suggested.

"Naruto's jacket is a useless piece of crap and doesn't work for shelter building?" Sasuke suggested.

"Hey! Are you calling my jacket a piece of crap?" Naruto challenged.

"It leaked, Naruto. It didn't protect us from getting wet. That coat's worthless."

"You're the one who suggested throwing it on top of the shelter at the last minute!"

"Hey, hey! No fighting, guys." Kakashi intervened. "Well, your answers are all partially right. Though throwing Naruto's jacket on top of the shelter was actually a good idea. If someone ever got lost in the forest and others come searching for that person, something like Naruto's bright orange jacket will stick out and there will be a better chance of that person being found by rescue parties or anyone else wandering around the area."

"Ha!" Naruto stuck his tongue out at Sasuke, who merely grunted as he faced away from Naruto, arms crossed across his chest.

"The jacket was pretty useless as protection for the shelter though." Kakashi added as he picked the sopping jacket up off of the shelter. "It's completely soaked."

"Thanks a lot, jerk!" Naruto shot angrily at the smirking Uchiha as he rose up, brushing dirt off of himself.

"So now that this activity's done, we'll head back for some lunch now before we go on our hike." Kakashi announced, handing the dripping wet jacket back to Naruto.

"I'm going to get changed first though, and nobody's going to stop me!" Sakura said threateningly, clothes and hair dripping with water.

_To be continued..._

(1) For those of you who don't watch the Japanese sub version of Naruto, kage bushin no jutsu is Naruto's shadow clone technique.

Another note for the hell of it: The shelter building part of this chapter was inspired by a similar activity that some campers and I did at camp a few weeks ago. We had to get into teams and build shelters. We had a 10 minute time limit and after every couple of minutes, the instructor would shout out: " 'Hurricane Bob' is coming in 3 minutes!" (Bob wasn't his real name, but I'm not giving that out online.) as, hurricanes have names, like "Hurricane Katrina" and such. So the "Hurricane Kakashi" idea was just a stupid odd joke I had to put in this chapter. Hope it didn't weird you guys out too much.

Please review! It would be awesome to see an inbox full of reviews when I return home. Also, when you review, you can babble as well, go for it!  
I'd appreciate it if you guys don't give really short one-liner reviews, like; "This story's good." C'mon, tell me _why_ it's good! I love those kinds of reviews that tell me why! Even constructive criticism is good! (That's what helps me improve my writing after all.) So review, 'cause it'll make me very happy. C'mon, you know you want to.


	14. The hike

I have returned from the terrors of camping! Actually, it actually wasn't that bad. Great fun actually, and it gave me more inspiration for this fanfic and possibly another one in the making. I even stayed in a city for half of the time, where I got Naruto DVDs and manga for real cheap. The city was nice, except for the fact that it _literally_ smelled like crap. (Something must've gone wrong with the sewage system there or something.) Whoops, I've been babbling. Sorry about that. So here is chapter 14 in the flesh! No, that didn't sound right...ah whatever. Just read it.

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Only the almighty Masashi Kishimoto does, and I sincerely hope that he never makes SasuSaku a real pairing!_

So the shinobi had a "delicious" meal of roasted squirrel and mouse that lunchtime deciding that they would save the fish and rabbit for dinner that night.

Sasuke willingly ate his mouse and squirrel, as he was hungry and knew it was their only means of survival.

Kakashi did that thing where he turns around for an instant and probably takes his mask off for a split second while no one's watching, and gulped his roasted squirrel down.

"Doesn't taste too bad, for living off the land." Kakashi commented.

Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto cursed under their breath as they had once again missed seeing Kakashi take his mask off.

Naruto looked sceptically at the roasted squirrel on a stick, sniffed back a tear, and took a large bite of the squirrel.

"Hey! This doesn't taste half bad!" Naruto smiled, all remorse and sadness leaving.

"That is if you're half starving and crazy!" Sakura said with a grimace on her face.

"Don't tell me that you're still too squeamish to eat anything we caught." Sasuke sighed.

Sakura picked up one of the cooked mice by the tail and held it at arms length away from her, cringing. "Of course I am! I can't eat wildlife that we were surrounded by and admiring!" Sakura cried.

"Why not? I took a fern last night and put it into the ramen. That's surrounding wildlife, isn't it?" Kakashi said as he pointed to a group of ferns that they were sitting by.

"You did WHAT?" Naruto cried.

"I knew that ramen had something suspicious in it." Sasuke said under his breath.

"I may have gotten over you guys killing rodents and bashing poor fish on the head, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to eat them!" Sakura huffed, folding her arms. "Besides, I'm on a diet! I don't need to eat right now."

"Alright, suit yourself. Don't go complaining to me though how you're hungry when we're hiking a few hours from now." Kakashi replied.

"Oh yeah! Are we going to do our hike after lunch?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, as soon as we finish up lunch, which it looks like we have. Everyone go pack a water bottle and a snack."

"Our snacks got eaten by the bears, remember?" Sasuke reminded Kakashi.

"Oh, right. Well, go pack up a water bottle then." Kakashi corrected.

So the shinobi got their water bottles while Kakashi got a backpack and put some first aid stuff in it. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke handed their water bottles to Kakashi, since he had the backpack and they were too lazy to carry them. Luckily he didn't seem to mind, or maybe he just had something else in store for them.

They walked out of the campsite and down the gravely path out towards the lake, and looked out towards the surrounding mountains.

"So where are we going to hike?" Sakura asked.

"Ooh! How about that mountain right there?" Naruto pointed up to a mountain that had its high rocky peak covered in snow.

"That's too high you moron. And we're going freeze up there too." Sasuke scoffed.

"Yes. I was thinking of something a bit easier. Like that mountain there." Kakashi pointed to an almost equally high mountain that also had its exposed rocky peak covered in snow.

"You know...that's not that much different from Naruto's ridiculous suggestion." Sasuke said sceptically.

"That mountain can work too!" Naruto nodded enthusiastically.

"Can't we try something a little more easier and less snowy, sensei? Like that mountain?" Sakura pointed to a shorter, smaller mountain that was covered in trees up to the top with no snow visible at the peak.

"Well, I suppose we could. Even though is has very little or no nice view at the top and it's a boring hike."

"What kind of hike is that?" Naruto cried angrily.

"An easier, less strenuous hike, that's what it is!" Sakura replied, hands on her hips.

"Aw, c'mon Sakura-chan! Don't be a wuss! Let's climb the bigger and cooler-looking mountain!" Naruto urged.

"I don't care. Just which ever way is the quickest." Sasuke grumbled.

"Which would be the mountain I pointed out." Sakura said.

"Ok then, the mountain Sakura pointed out is the one I want to do."

Kakashi sighed, giving into Sasuke and Sakura's wishes. "Alright, we'll do that mountain then. It's your funeral though."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura gave their sensei a sceptical look, wondering what he had meant by that. But without another word, they followed Kakashi down the trail that led to the mountain. When they approached the base of the easy mountain where the trail started, Kakashi stopped and faced his team.

"Alright, since this is going to be a fairly easy hike compared to the other mountain I was originally planning for us to hike up, there's got to be something you guys will need to do in order make up for that."

"Uh-oh." Sakura groaned.

"Is this what he means by 'our funeral'?" Naruto asked nervously.

"I knew we wouldn't get off the hook that easily." Sasuke grumbled.

"Though we don't have our ninja skills, we can still train here. So you guys will each carry a stone up the mountain for training."

"Alright, no problem!" Naruto grinned, picking up a stone off the ground that was about the size of a baseball. "So much for a funeral! I'm set to go!" Naruto smiled.

Kakashi shook his head, "No, I was thinking of something more along the line of these here..." Kakashi pointed to a pile of rocks, each about the size of Naruto's head. Sakura shrieked "What?" while Sasuke just scowled. Naruto looked dumbfounded for a moment, but regained his composure, grinning widely, and walked over to the rock pile.

"Alright, I can do this no problem! Believe it!"

Naruto bent down and picked up the rock, struggling, but managing to lift the stone into his hand. "This is no sweat!" Naruto huffed, smiling.

"I bet that's not what you'll be saying ten minutes from now when were hiking up the mountain." Sasuke scowled.

"Aw, shut up you motor mouth!".

"Speak for yourself, Naruto!" Sakura scolded. "Sasuke's anything but that!"

"Alright, enough bickering guys. Time to go pick up your stones." Kakashi told Sasuke and Sakura.

Sakura and Sasuke proceeded to pick up their stones. Sakura's knees shook as she picked up the stone, managing to hold it, but looking strained all the same.

"You mean we have to do this all the way up the mountain?" Sakura asked, a look of worry on her face.

"Precisely." Kakashi replied. "And the person who manages to get to the top first while still holding their stone will get a special prize too."

"This is stupid." Sasuke grumbled.

"This is training, so take it seriously as you would back in Konoha." Kakashi sternly told the scowling Uchiha boy.

"I'm going to be the one who makes it to the top first! Believe it!" Naruto cried before he burst off and started up the trail that went up the mountain.

Sasuke took his stone as if it were no problem and started walking up the trail.

Sakura slowly started up the trail, trying not to drop the rock.

"Kakashi-sensei? Why don't you have to carry a stone up the mountain like we have to?" Sakura asked.

"Because it's you guys who need the training, not me. I'm your sensei, so therefore you do whatever I tell you. Now go carry that stone up the mountain."

Naruto shouted from farther up the trail, "This is nothing! I'm going to beat you all! Believe it!"

Kakashi took out his copy of Icha Icha Paradise and began to read it as he started to walk up the trail. Sakura reluctantly followed after him, sticking her tongue out at him with his back turned.

One hour later, Naruto was not enjoying himself. His was lugging his stone up the trail, sweating and panting.

"This sucks! My arms ache so much!" Naruto whined. "I think I'll just ditch this stone while Kakashi-sensei's not looking." He said more quietly to himself.

As Sasuke, tired but determined, passed Naruto with his stone, he made some kind of grunting noise, which probably meant something along the lines of "Wimp" or "Loser".

"Hey! You're not going to beat me!" Naruto cried, determined to beat his rival.

Naruto tried to run past Sasuke, but only managing to trip and fall flat on his face with the weight of the stone dragging him down.

"If it weren't for this stone...dammit, Sasuke! I'd beat you so badly up to the top!" Naruto grunted, picking himself up off the ground.

"Hey loser! Without the stone, it totally defeats the purpose of this exercise." Sasuke smirked, stating the obvious.

"I am not a loser! I'm real winner! Believe it!"

"This is painful...and I'm so hungry." Sakura groaned, further down the mountain from the two boys.

"Didn't I tell you not to complain about that earlier? I bet you wish now that you had that mouse for lunch." Kakashi teased.

"That's right, rub it in, why don't you!" Sakura glowered she heaved her rock up the mountain, her sensei taunting her. "How did such a nice day trip turn into such a gruelling, horrible training session?"

"It'll be good for you." Kakashi told her. "But how do you plan on getting to the top first at the speed you're going at?"

"I have a question for you; How do you read that book of your without crashing into a tree or falling off a cliff?" Sakura asked incredulously as she watched the silver-haired man walking straight up the path with his eyes glued on his orange book.

"I'm just special. That's all." Kakashi replied, smiling.

A fuming Sakura made a move to fling her rock at Kakashi, but then she thought that he'd probably just avoid it anyways since he was so "special" and she'd probably get punished for it too.

"Don't even think about it, Sakura" Kakashi warned, as though he knew what had jut gone through the young kunoichi's mind.

"What? I wasn't!" Sakura protested. She began to mutter, "Stupid Kakashi-sensei with his "special" stuff and that stupid book, walking..."

And Sakura just kept mumbling and grumbling like a grouchy old man, until Kakashi suddenly walked smack into a tree.

There was pain...

Sakura burst out laughing, pointing at Kakashi and dropped the stone she was carrying onto her foot in the process.

Again, there was much pain...and screaming

Meanwhile, further up the mountain, Naruto was walking practically crouched down, dragging his rock behind him on the ground.

"I...haven't...abandoned...the rock yet..." Naruto panted heavily as Sasuke, not far ahead of him, was heaving his rock up the trail. Though Sasuke wouldn't ever admit it, he wanted to win the training contest badly.

"This is taking too long! I'm going try something different that'll beat Sasuke for sure!" Naruto said to himself as he picked up his rock with all his might, lifted it above his shoulders and threw the rock in front of him. The rock landed a total of two feet ahead of Naruto. Naruto took a few steps towards the rock, picked up the rock again, and threw it in front of him again 3 feet this time. He approached the rock, picked it up, threw it 3 feet, and repeated the idiotic process over and over.

"This is working better than carrying it!" Naruto exclaimed with a smile on his face.

Sasuke was still holding the rock in his arms, panting as he trudged up the trail.

"...I can...do this..." Sasuke panted, trying to encourage himself.

Naruto had unbelievably caught up to Sasuke, not that he'd be able to keep the pace up for long though, as his arms and back were getting very sore from throwing the rock.

Naruto threw his stone 3 feet ahead of him, walked to it as Sasuke looked at Naruto with one of those "What the hell are you doing?" looks. Naruto picked up the stone just as he was reaching Sasuke, throwing the stone to hit the ground 3 feet in front of him once more

"Naruto, what the f-" Sasuke began, but was cut off as Naruto's stone landed on top of Sasuke's foot.

Sasuke stood there, looking at Naruto, then his foot for a moment, too shocked to feel any pain at first, but when it came, he let out a scream that sent all of the birds in the treetops of the mountain flying away.

Sasuke glared a death glare at Naruto as he painfully lifted the heavy rock off of his foot.

"Naruto..." Sasuke growled dangerously.

"It was your fault! You got in my rock's way, so it crushed your foot when it landed!" Naruto defended.

"I'M GOING TOF-CKING KILL YOU!" Sasuke screamed angrily, scaring the daylights out of Naruto.

Sasuke lunged at Naruto, who quickly took his stone and bolted up the path to the top of the mountain to escape Sasuke's wrath. An enraged Sasuke limped after Naruto, shouting a colourful mixture of swear words and other things.

"And that must have been Sasuke getting his foot crushed by his stone." Kakashi announced, still lower down the mountain than Naruto and Sasuke. "He should really watch his foul language."

"Sasuke!" Sakura cried, running, or hobbling really, up the trail, as she had also injured her foot by smartly dropping her rock onto it earlier.

Kakashi rubbed his very sore nose, quite sure that it was broken from walking smack into that tree. "How did I crash into a tree this time?" Kakashi pondered, rubbing his nose. "It's never happened before. Interesting..."

And so Kakashi stood there pondering, as Sakura made her mad hobbling-dash up the mountain.

"Shit! He's gonna beat the living crap out of me if he catches me!" Naruto cried, increasing his speed even more. Naruto stopped as he almost ran off the ledge of the mountain, looking down at the lake, forest, and campgrounds below him.

"Oh-no, I'm trapped! I'm at the top and there's nowhere else to run to!" The blonde cried frantically. Then realization hit him. "I'm at the top...sweet! I made it to the top first!" Naruto shouted out for the whole world to hear. Naruto jumped into the air with his arms raised in victory, forgetting that he was holding his rock, which fell onto his foot.

Naruto screamed out a loud scream that made the birds on the next mountain fly away from the treetops.

"Well, it sounds like all of my students have smashed their feet up now." Kakashi said to himself, further down the mountain. He turned to look at Sakura, but all that was there was her large rock. "Now where did she get to?"

Further up, Sasuke limped up to the summit where Naruto was. Sasuke saw Naruto, hopping around on one foot, cursing and shouting in pain. Sasuke saw the rock by Naruto and realized that he left his own further down the trail.

Naruto had won the training contest.

And Sasuke had led him to it by making death threats, sending the little fox boy flying up the mountain in fear of being pummelled.

Sasuke slapped himself and cursed under his breath as he trudged over to Naruto and smashed his fist upon the blonde boy's head.

"OW! Stop it! I'm in enough pain as it is already!" Naruto cried, rubbing his head.

"You're in pain? Well at least your rock didn't "jump" on your foot from over 5 feet up in the air!" Sasuke snarled angrily.

"Yeah, but it still hurt falling from 4 feet in the air! And now my head hurts too, thanks to you!" Naruto said through gritted teeth.

"You loser! I'm so pissed off at you that I could just push you off this cliff right now!" Sasuke said, stepping violently towards Naruto as though he meant what he had said.

"Help! Sasuke's going try to kill me by pushing me off the mountain!" Naruto screamed loudly at the top of his lungs.

"Now we'll have none of that, Sasuke." Kakashi said, suddenly appearing behind Sasuke.

"Where did you come from?" Naruto cried in surprise and relief.

"You poofed yourself up here, didn't you? You damn cheater!" Sasuke growled.

"No, I can't do that here, remember?" Kakashi reminded Sasuke.

"Then how did you-oh never mind." Sasuke growled. "I bet you cheated somehow!"

"I never said that I was going to be part of this training. You're lucky that I even bothered climbing this mountain with you guys."

"Well, DUH! Of course you're supposed to climb the mountain with us! We're a team, right? We're supposed to do pretty much everything with each other!" Naruto told Kakashi.

"Alright, so I'm assuming that from Naruto's loud shout of joy before he dropped his stone on his foot that Naruto was the first one up here?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah, it was me! I whooped Sasuke's ass! Believe it!" Naruto grinned, throwing his fist up into the air.

"That was only because Naruto threw his stone on my foot!" Sasuke cut in.

"Did not!"

"You did so throw that freaking stone on my foot! Don't deny it, you little-" Sasuke was cut off with a gesture of Kakashi's hand.

"Now, now. Before you two tear each other apart, let's sort this out. You didn't drop the stone on your own foot, Sasuke?" Kakashi asked.

"No! That dumbest, cheating, lame excuse for a ninja threw it on my foot!" Sasuke angrily replied, pointing at Naruto.

"What did you call me? Say it again you bastard!" Naruto challenged.

"Don't worry, Sasuke! I'm coming!" Sakura called out, limping up to the summit where the three other shinobi were standing.

"Sasuke! You've already gotten to the top? I thought you were hurt, so I-" Sakura started, but was cut off by Kakashi.

"Sakura, aren't you forgetting something?"

Sakura stopped abruptly, looking at her hands. Now that she thought about it, she did get up the mountain rather quickly for having a crippled foot.

"Oh no, the rock! I knew I forgot something when I was running up here!" Sakura moaned, collapsing in defeat.

Kakashi turned to his three students. "So because Sakura was the last to get here, and forgot to bring her stone up with her, and Naruto threw his stone upon Sasuke's foot, enabling him to get to the top first, this disqualifies Sakura and Naruto-"

'What?" Naruto shouted.

"-which means Sasuke wins by default, as he got the farthest without cheating." Kakashi finished.

"But I was first to get to the top!" Naruto protested.

"But you are disqualified for throwing your stone on Sasuke's foot." Kakashi told the angered boy.

"But I didn't do that on purpose! I swear I didn't!".

"Whether or not you did, if you hadn't done that, Sasuke probably would've won." Kakashi told Naruto.

"You're just favouring him again! Like always!" Naruto shouted angrily at Kakashi, crossing his arms and pouting.

"What can I say? I'm just that good." Sasuke smirked.

"Sasuke, I'm going to be the one that pushes you off the mountain!" Naruto shouted angrily, balling up his fists.

"Naruto! Give it a rest already!" Sakura cut in angrily.

"It's going to get dark within an hour, so we better head down now." Kakashi told the three genin. He began to head down the mountain, his three students limping after him.

_To be continued..._

Everyone who's reading this, I beg of you to review. Review, fools! (Ah, it feels good to be back.)


	15. The Chubby Bunny

This chapter's pointlessly longer the most of the other chapters. Hope you enjoy it! And thanks for the reviews, guys. Keep them coming!

Note: Numbers by words mean there are notes/explanations at the bottom of the page for the word, sentence, or situation. For example; like this(1)

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, dammit!_

Team 7 painfully limped down the mountain, well minus Kakashi, as he didn't have a large rock to carry and drop on his foot like the other three did when they climbed up the mountain. By the time they were half way down, Naruto's foot had pretty much healed because of his special Kyuubi healing powers. Sasuke looked enviously at Naruto (Yes, enviously. Can you believe it?) as the young hyperactive blonde skipped down the last half of the mountain, singing campfire songs merrily at the top of his lungs.

By this point, limping Sakura collapsed and refused to move any further. So Kakashi had to give her a piggyback ride down the mountain.

"Oh well. It'll be good training for me." Kakashi mused.

"Is training all you can ever think about?" Sakura asked, annoyed. "Why can't I get a piggyback with Sasuke? Dammit!" Inner Sakura shouted.

They finally reached the foot of the mountain and arrived back at the campsite just before darkness fell.

"So what about my prize for winning the training competition?" Sasuke asked, trying not to look too smug. But he couldn't help smiling a bit triumphantly as Naruto was reminded of his own disqualification, putting Naruto back in a grumpy mood.

"Ah, yes. That...I'll go get it." Kakashi said, dropping Sakura as he proceeded to get the prize from his tent.

"Kakashi-sensei! You're not supposed to drop a lady on the ground like that!" Sakura shouted angrily.

"Oh! Sorry about that. I forgot that you were even on my back. Silly me!" Kakashi smiled sheepishly as he chuckled.

"Forgot that I was there?" Sakura balled her fists up looking ready to scream, but she instead took a large leaf from a nearby bush and tore it apart with her teeth.

"Sasuke, look! Sakura-chan's lost it! I think all of the fish and mouse meat must be getting to her head!" Naruto cried as he pointed at Sakura.

"Well, it's better than her screaming her frustration out." Sasuke replied.

"Well somebody's hungry." Kakashi chuckled as he emerged from the tent, glancing at Sakura with the leaf.

"Here you go, Sasuke. Good job." Kakashi tossed the last cup of instant ramen to Sasuke with a hint of reluctance on his face. Sasuke caught it, opened it, and lit the stove to heat water for it.

"What? No way! Where did you get that from?" Naruto asked, jealousy clearly showing on his face.

"It was the one ramen cup I managed to save from the bears. The rest of us will be having fish tonight." Kakashi replied.

"B-but that was supposed to me my ramen! I'm the one who likes ramen the most!" Naruto whined.

Sakura looked at the instant ramen enviously as Sasuke poured the pot of hot water into the ramen cup. Though she wasn't crazy as Naruto about ramen, it would sure beat having fish again for another meal.

"Oh no..." Kakashi groaned.

"What? What? What?" Naruto asked, fearing the worst.

"Looks like a bear or raccoon came in and ate all the fish I caught today." Kakashi sighed. "I should really think about getting a bear bag(1) so they don't keep crashing our camp and raiding all of our food."

"No way!" Naruto cried.

"Does that mean we'll have to eat squirrels and mice again?" Sakura asked, looking rather sick.

"We already ate those, and it's too dark to go out hunting now. We'll just have to go without dinner tonight." Kakashi replied.

"But I'm so hungry after hiking and not eating since lunch! So how come Sasuke gets dinner?" Naruto whined.

"Don't you listen? Sasuke won the training exercise, so he won the dinner! You're so stupid sometimes." Sakura huffed. "You're complaining? I didn't even eat any lunch today, dammit!" Inner Sakura screamed.

"Damn it...well, I'm tough! I can make it with out dinner. Believe it!" Naruto said confidently

Naruto's stomach gave a loud rumble as Sasuke smirked. Naruto looked pathetically over at Sasuke for a moment, and then slowly shuffled towards him, his stomach taking control over his head and his pride.

Sakura and Kakashi stood there for a moment, trying to ignore their own growling stomachs, but the smell of Sasuke's ramen was extremely tempting and just made them that much hungrier.

Sasuke sat down at the camp picnic table, ready to eat his ramen, when Naruto, dropping all dignity, crouched down made a puppy face, whimpering.

Sasuke tried to ignore him as he took a bite of his ramen, but Naruto's teary-eyed face was rather distracting.

Sasuke looked down again and saw that Sakura was knelt down, looking up at him, blushing with pleading eyes, making Sasuke have half the mind to punch her and Naruto away from his sight. But he just couldn't do that. So he tried to go back to eating.

He was just about to take a bite of ramen, when he looked back down again. Now Kakashi, his teacher, was crouching down on the ground on all fours with Naruto and Sakura, staring up at him with puppy eyes.

Sasuke just stared at them in disgust for a moment, and placed his ramen cup back down on the table. "Alright, alright. You don't all have to look so disgustingly pathetic about it. I've lost my appetite now anyways." Sasuke grumbled.

"Wow! Yon really mean it, Sasuke? Thanks a lot!" Naruto grinned.

The three starved ninjas cheered as Sasuke went to start the campfire.

"I call first dibs!" Naruto shouted.

"You better not eat it all if you ever want to live to eat another cup of ramen ever again!" Sakura warned.

"You guys better leave me some!" Kakashi added.

So the three ninjas somehow managed to split up the ramen equally among them selves without killing each other and devoured their shares in an amazing amount of speed, which perhaps even Akimichi Chouji could not compete with.

"Man, that was good!" Naruto grinned, patting his belly. "But I'm still hungry!"

"Those things really aren't meant to be shared among three people after all. But it sure beats eating a squirrel!" Sakura smiled.

"And it beats eating nothing!" Naruto grinned.

"I do feel a bit bad for us eating Sasuke's earned prize and dinner though." Kakashi said.

The three of them were silent for a moment, sitting there and feeling quite guilty indeed.

"Oh wait. Guilty feeling's gone!" Kakashi smiled. "That ramen tasted great."

"You better be thankful!" Sasuke shouted angrily from the fire pit.

"We are! Thanks, Sasuke!" Naruto grinned, replying back. "Best meal I've had today!"

"Naruto, don't rub it in for him." Sakura scolded.

"Hey, can we have campfire now?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, I'll go grab the marshmallows." Kakashi replied.

"But you said that all the food was stolen by the bears." Sakura reminded her sensei.

"Yes, true. But the marshmallows have been kept in the vehicle." Kakashi grinned as he got up and got the marshmallows from 'Michael'.

"Kakashi-sensei, you officially rock!" Naruto cheered as he sat himself down in one of the fold-up chairs at the fire pit beside Sasuke, who had got the fire burning and sat down in the other fold-up chair. Sakura and Kakashi sat themselves down on the log.

"Pass the marshmallows over here!" Naruto, waving his hand in the air as Kakashi tossed the marshmallows over the fire to Naruto.

"You shouldn't throw those over the campfire!" Sakura scolded. "What if you didn't throw far enough and they fell into the fire?"

"Sakura, I always throw far enough." Kakashi assured Sakura in a mock-serious tone of voice.

Naruto popped a marshmallow in his mouth, chewing in delight. His eyes suddenly widened as he got an idea.

"Hey! We should play 'Chubby Bunny'!" Naruto exclaimed.

"What's that?" Sakura asked.

"Oh-no..." Kakashi groaned, shaking his head.

"What? What's wrong?" Sakura asked, turning to Kakashi.

"It's a game where you see how many marshmallows you can stuff in your mouth." Kakashi explained. "After every marshmallow you stuff in your mouth, you have to try to say "Chubby Bunny" with your mouth full. It's a rather simple, yet stupid game."

"I'll say. That does sound stupid!" Sakura agreed, nodding her head.

"Hey! I was going to tell them how the game worked! And it's not a stupid game either!" Naruto said angrily." So who wants to play?"

The rest of team 7 sat there quietly, none of them volunteering.

"Alright, I'll play by myself then if you guys are such pansies!" Naruto huffed.

"Pansy, you said?" Sasuke challenged. "I bet I could stuff more marshmallows in my mouth than you could, you loser." The confident Uchiha smirked.

"Alright then! Let the Chubby Bunny competition begin!" Naruto cheered, throwing his fist into the air.

"Alright, do what you want. But don't come crying to me in the middle of the night, complaining how sick you are." Kakashi warned.

"Yeah, whatever. We'll be fine!" Naruto grinned as he popped one marshmallow into his mouth and said "Chubby Bunny!"

Sasuke took a marshmallow and popped one into his mouth and said "Chubby Bunny."

"And so the insanity begins." Sakura sighed as she and Kakashi watched the two boys begin their ridiculous rivalry contest.

Naruto took another marshmallow, stuffing it into his mouth and saying. "Chubby Bunny!" Sasuke took another marshmallow and stuffed it into his mouth. "Chubby Bunny." Naruto took another. "Chubby Bunny!" Sasuke took another. "Chubby Bunny!" At this point, their speech was sounding very muffled and Sakura couldn't help but laugh as they tried to pronounce the word 'Chubby Bunny'.

"You know, that does look like fun!" Sakura laughed. "And I'm still hungry too."

"I wouldn't if I were you, Sakura." Kakashi warned. "Those two boys are going to be throwing up all night, and I don't want you up-chucking those marshmallows the whole night either."

"Oh, don't worry. I'll just have a few. I'll be fine." Sakura assured as she rose up from the log. "Hand me those marshmallows, boys! I'm playing too!"

Kakashi sighed as he lay his chin on his hand. "Great, just what I've always wanted. A team of competitive, hot-headed, sick to their stomach genins throwing up all night. Oh well, it's their loss."

Sakura took her first marshmallow, popping it in her mouth. "Chubby Bunny!" She took a second, a third, and a fourth, popping them into her mouth, saying "Chubby Bunny" two times in order to catch up to and surpass the boys.

"Man! She's going straight for the kill!" Naruto exclaimed, speech muffled with the three marshmallows in his mouth.

"She won't beat me." Sasuke muttered as he stuffed a fourth marshmallow in his mouth. "Chubby Bunny!"

"Oh yeah? Well take this, guys!" Naruto challenged, stuffing two marshmallows in his mouth. "Chubby Bunny!" He said in a very muffled voice. Sakura stuffed another. Sasuke stuffed in two more. At this point, their cheeks were puffed out like chipmunks and Kakashi couldn't help but laugh as they tried to say 'Chubby Bunny.'

"Are you sure you don't wanna play, sensei?" Naruto asked in a very muffled voice.

"Yes, I'm very sure I don't want to play. And I'm sure you'll find out why in a moment." Kakashi replied, eyeing Sakura who was looking queasy. A moment later, she ran to the bushes.

"Well, that's one down." Kakashi said to himself. Sasuke and Naruto were still trying to out-do each other. Sasuke had 8 in his mouth, and was looking very sick now. Naruto stuffed 9 in his mouth and he was looking a little queasy himself. Sasuke took another, but dropped it and joined Sakura at the bushes.

Naruto stuffed 2 more in, making 11. Naruto let out a very muffled "uhhy unny" and triumphantly raised his fists into the air.

Kakashi shook his head. "That's quite sick, really." But he chuckled anyways. "And you do look like a chubby bunny."

Sakura returned and sat back down on the log. She gaped at Naruto.

"How many of those are in your mouth?" She cried.

"I ha eyeruh arherrows ih ai ouh" Naruto replied, voice completely muffled.

"What did you just say? I can't understand a thing you're saying!"

"He said he has eleven marshmallows in his mouth." Kakashi replied.

"How did you understand that?" Sakura asked in disbelief.

"My team-mates and sensei played this game every night when we went camping. I pretty much had to learn how understand my team with them stuffing their faces with marshmallows every campfire." Kakashi replied.

Sasuke stumbled from the bushes and sat down in his chair, clutching his stomach and groaning.

"Regretting that you ever challenged Naruto now?" Kakashi asked as he smiled teasingly.

"I only had to spit my marshmallows out, but I think that Sasuke actually got really sick!" Sakura said in worry. "Are you alright, Sasuke-kun?"

Naruto said more things, voice extremely muffled with all of the marshmallows in his mouth.

"Naruto, get those things out of your mouth!" Kakashi ordered.

Naruto spat them out into the fire, grinning. "I'm the Chubby Bunny!" He cheered, raising his fists into the air in victory.

"I'll tell you what you are; you're sick!" Sakura shouted.

"Yeah, but you don't have to shout it out for the whole world to hear." Sasuke growled.

"So how about that, Sasuke? You may have won the prize for the hike, but I won the Chubby Bunny competition!" Naruto declared, pointing his finger at Sasuke triumphantly.

"Stuffing 11 marshmallows in your mouth…is that really something to be proud of?" Sasuke asked sceptically.

"You're just jealous that I can stuff more marshmallows in my mouth than you can!" Naruto grinned with a superior look on his face.

"Oh yes. I'm definitely jealous that I can't be more of a pig than you." Sasuke replied sarcastically.

"What's that you said? I'm gonna destroy you!"

Before Naruto could do anything though, Kakashi spoke up, "Alright, we better head off to bed now."

"Good idea. I'm absolutely tired. I need to grab some beauty sleep." Sakura agreed, yawning.

"Awww, ok. So what are we going to do tomorrow?" Naruto asked.

"Tomorrow, I'm going try to convince the camp ranger to get me to the nearest store to get some gas for 'Michael' and some more food so we can stay here a bit longer. If I can't convince him, I'll just walk there." Kakashi replied.

"But that will take hours! Possibly even days!" Sakura cried.

"Face it. We really need the food and the car gas. It'll be fine." Kakashi assured the pink-haired kunoichi. "Besides, I never said that you guys had to come with me."

Naruto let out a cheer, "Sweet! We'll get to party and do whatever we want!"

"No, Naruto!" Sakura said sternly.

"Why not?" Naruto whined.

"You know it's wrong to do things like party when sensei's gone!" Sakura lectured. On the contrary though, Inner Sakura cheered, "Hell yeah! The three of us alone! Now we can do whatever the hell we want! "

"But I think it's a great idea!" Naruto persisted.

"Oh, I'm too tired to argue with you anymore tonight. Let's just get to bed." Sakura groaned.

So Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura went off to their tent to grab some shut-eye, though that wasn't in Naruto's mind.

"Hey guys! Wanna tell ghost stories?" Naruto asked, grinning.

"Shut up, Naruto. I'm trying to sleep." Sasuke growled.

"Fine! Be that way, Mr. big-shot champ!" Naruto teased.

"Remember, this big-shot champ here gave you his meal that he won. So you better watch what you say, you big-time loser." Sasuke shot back.

Naruto stuck his tongue out at Sasuke, who just ignored him and lay down to fall asleep, as it was too dark for him to see Naruto anyways.

"How about you, Sakura? Wanna do something?" Naruto asked.

"I'm really worn out, Naruto. I just want some sleep." Sakura wearily replied.

"This isn't fun! I mean we're camping! We should do something!" Naruto pointed out.

There was a loud 'whump' outside of the tent as Kakashi had tripped once again on the tent peg line, grumbling as he stumbled off into his tent.

"Are you sure you don't want to do anything, Sakura-chan?" Naruto tried again.

"Yes Naruto, now go to sleep before I pound your face in!" She replied, anger lacing her tired voice.

Naruto couldn't fall asleep, despite the long and tiring hike they had that day. The effects of stuffing 11 marshmallows in his mouth, plus eating half of them, were starting to have an effect on his stomach.

"Ooooh, I feel so sick." Naruto groaned as he clutched his stomach. "I'm not gonna be able to sleep at all tonight!" He moaned.

"I warned you." Kakashi called out from his tent in a teasing tone of voice.

"Shut up!" Naruto shouted back. He folded his arms across his chest angrily. His stomach gave another sickening lurch, anger turning into regret and discomfort. He took out his flashlight to read his comic books, or 'manga' as he called it, to forget about his upset stomach. He did this contently for about half an hour, until he got bored and started making shadows with his fingers on the tent wall.

Naruto had his hands in the shape of a dog and was making barking sounds. Then he shaped his fingers on his hand into the form of a rabbit and made his other hand into the shape of a snakehead, eating the rabbit and making weird sounds.

"Naruto, What the hell are you doing?" Sasuke grumbled.

"I'm making shadow puppets of course! What does it look like?" Naruto replied.

"Can't we get any sleep with you?" Sasuke sighed.

"Let me see...well, no I guess. Not really." Naruto replied, smiling goofily.

Sakura rose out of her sleeping bag and grabbed Naruto by the collar of his pyjamas. "Naruto, you jerk! I-"

Sakura was cut off as loud snapping and grunting sounds was heard in the bushes.

"What was that?" Naruto cried in fear.

Sakura brought her fist down on Naruto's head. "Trying to pull that same old stupid joke as well? You really are an impossible jerk!" Sakura shouted.

"That sound definitely came from outside. It wasn't Naruto. Kakashi-sensei's already in his tent, so it wasn't him either." Sasuke corrected Sakura, bringing fear to the kunoichi's face.

Sakura let out a short but loud screech as she heard the sounds again. Naruto let out a yelp as well.

"It's another bear!" Sakura squeaked in fear.

"Who cares?" Sasuke scowled, rolling over in his sleeping bag to attempt to fall asleep.

"What do you mean by "Who cares?"! It's a **_bear_**, Sasuke!" Naruto cried. "I don't think you know what those things can actually do to us, especially if we just lie here!"

More snapping, scratching, and grunting sounds were heard.

"What if it tries to hurt us?" Sakura whimpered.

"Then let's go get it before it gets us!" Naruto declared, raising his fist up into the air.

Naruto rose to get up, but Sakura hit him on the head with her fist.

"You idiot! Don't tell me that you forgot that we can't use jutsu here!"

"Oh, right..." Naruto mumbled as he remembered, sinking back down onto his sleeping bag.

Heavy footsteps, loud growling, and rustling were heard from the bushes.

"Maybe it's not even a bear! It could be worse! Something bigger, scarier and meaner!" Sakura squeaked in fear.

Naruto let out a yelp at the possibility. "I bet it is! If it really does try to hurt us, what'll we do?" Naruto asked, very frightened as well.

"Let's get Kakashi-sensei. Maybe he can help!" Sakura suggested.

"Yeah! But that means...going out there...where that thing is!" Naruto shivered.

"It'll be ok if we run fast and if Sasuke comes with us." Sakura told Naruto, seemingly assured.

"Aww, do we have to bring Sasuke along?" Naruto whined.

"Of course!"

"Ok, fine."

"I'm going to have no part in this. I'm going back to sleep, so leave me alone." Sasuke spoke.

"Sasuke, please come with us to get Kakashi-sensei! Please? We're scared!" Sakura pleaded.

"Why the hell would I-" Sasuke began, but was cut off by more loud growling and scratching from the bushes next to their tent.

"I think it's actually...coming to get us." Sasuke said, looking slightly frightened.

"Run!" Naruto screamed. So they all burst out of the tent (Yes, even Sasuke), in fear of whatever it was outside in the bushes and ran into Kakashi's tent, screaming.

"What the hell are you-" Kakashi started, but was cut off by the terrified and wailing voices of his students.

"There's something scary outside!" Naruto cried.

"I'm scared!" Sakura wailed.

Sakura and Naruto began to burst out crying and childishly clung to Kakashi. Sasuke almost found himself doing the same, but valuing his pride over his comfort or safety, he refrained himself from doing that.

"Hey guys...can you let go of me now?" Kakashi asked.

Sakura and Naruto both quickly let go, embarrassed, and began to both tell Kakashi what they heard in the bushes in scared, blubbery, choked-up voices.

"I can't understand a word of what you two are saying, but I'm sure whatever it was that was out there, you scared it off with your screaming." Kakashi assured his frightened students.

"Why the hell did I come here anyways?" Sasuke asked out loud.

"Because you were scared." Naruto answered.

"...No I wasn't." Sasuke replied, his body still shaking slightly in fear.

"Well, it's time for all of you to go back to your tent now." Kakashi said. "Goodnight."

Sasuke left the tent and went back to his own, but Sakura and Naruto remained where they were.

"Aren't you two going off to your tent now?" Kakashi asked, hoping they would leave very soon so he could get back to sleep.

Sakura burst out crying, "Can you come to our tent? I'm so scared!"

"If you don't come, the thing's going to eat us when we get back to our tent!" Naruto cried, eyes watering at this point. "I don't wanna die!"

"You are shinobi now. You have to learn to cope with the wilderness. You will be dealing with this sort of thing every night on future missions you take when your rank rises." Kakashi lectured his students.

"But we don't have our shinobi jutsu to defend ourselves here! At least on regular missions, we can defend ourselves better!" Sakura protested.

Sakura had a good point, and the two genin looked so scared and upset that Kakashi couldn't just say "Go away. I don't care, so just let me get some sleep". The camping trip was his idea after all, the copy-nin reminded himself.

Kakashi sighed in defeat, "Alright, I'll come over. But we're going to sleep right away."

Naruto and Sakura cheered in delight as they left the tent, a disgruntled Kakashi following after them.

"What? Why's he sleeping here?" Sasuke asked.

"We're scared to sleep alone." Sakura replied, smiling sheepishly. "If something attacks us, he'll save us!" She added.

"Yeah! Unlike you, Sasuke!" Naruto added.

"Alright, that's enough." Kakashi cut in. "Time to sleep now. Goodnight."

Kakashi set his sleeping bag down beside Sasuke and seemed to fall asleep on the spot as soon as he lay down.

"Let's just hope he doesn't snore." Sasuke groaned.

"Yeah. Unlike somebody else here!" Naruto added, staring hard at Sasuke.

"I don't snore." Sasuke frowned.

"You do too! I heard you last night!" Naruto protested

"Oh. That would've been Sakura."

"What? No way! Sakura-chan, you snore?" Naruto asked in disbelief.

"...Of course I don't!" Sakura cried angrily. "Sasuke-kun! Why the hell did you tell him? Dammit!" Inner Sakura screamed.

"Alright. Well I'm getting sleepy, so…goodnight!" Naruto lay down in his sleeping bag and fell asleep. Shortly afterwards, Sakura also fell asleep.

Sasuke wondered to himself if he, himself, actually did snore, and if he had really just imagined Sakura snoring the night before.

But his question was answered shortly as Sakura began to snore quite loudly.

Naruto began to mumble and mutter things in his sleep. Then he half shouted something out as Sasuke was about to doze off.

"Great. I'm never going to get any sleep with Naruto and Sakura's mumbling shouts and snoring." The Uchiha groaned, rolling away from Naruto. "Well, at least Kakashi-sensei's a quiet sleeper."

At that moment, Kakashi sharply kicked Sasuke in the shin. Not intentionally, though, as Sasuke discovered a moment later.

"Great! I'm stuck sleeping with a snoring girl, a sleep-talking idiot, and a man who kicks and moves around in his sleep!"

At that moment, Kakashi rolled over, practically crushing Sasuke between Kakashi and Naruto. Sasuke tried hitting Kakashi on the arm with his fist, but the copy ninja slumbered on. Naruto kept talking and shouting things out in his sleep. "The monkey's got my ramen!"

After 15 minutes, Sasuke got fed up and finally managed to push Kakashi, sending him rolling over back to his own side.

"Finally!" Sasuke breathed, glad to have some room. Sasuke shut his eyes and was just about to finally doze off, when someone shook him on the shoulder.

Sasuke groaned and rolled over to look up into the face of Naruto.

"...What do you want?"

"I need to go to the bathroom!" Naruto whispered.

"...And you woke me up to tell me this because...?" Sasuke asked in severe annoyance.

"Don't you know? When one of us goes to the bathroom, we have to bring a buddy along! "Bathroom Buddies", you know?" Naruto reminded Sasuke.

Sasuke rolled over, obscuring Naruto from his sight. "I'm not your "Bathroom Buddy". Go ask someone else, you loser."

"Aw, c'mon! Please? I really need to go!" Naruto whined.

"Naruto, leave me alone, or else there will be blood..." Sasuke warned.

"Fine! You heartless bastard!" Naruto spat as he made a pouty face and turned to Sakura who had her face buried into her pillow.

"Hey Sakura! I need to go to the bathroom! Can you come with me?"

"Naruto, let me get my beauty sleep..." Sakura mumbled, trying to ignore the desperate Naruto. Naruto shook Sakura's arm.

"C'mon Sakura. Please? I really need to go! I'm not joking! I really need to-"

Sakura blindly swung her fist hitting its mark by nailing Naruto's face. "Go ask someone else, you moron!"

Sakura began to snore, marking that she had somehow fallen asleep within a span of 5 seconds after hitting Naruto.

Almost in tears, Naruto sat there for a moment, recovering from Sakura's blow before crawling over to where Kakashi was sleeping. Naruto shook his shoulder.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto whispered.

Kakashi didn't reply.

"Kakashi-sensei, wake up!"

Kakashi mumbled something incoherently before turning over in his sleeping bag.

Frustrated, Naruto hit him on the arm with his fist hard. Suspecting he was under attack, Kakashi sat up and swung his arm around, smacking Naruto in the face, once again sending Naruto's face in denial.

"Oh. It's just you...what do you want, Naruto?" Kakashi sighed, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

Naruto rubbed his throbbing face before replying, "I need to go to the bathroom!"

Kakashi groaned and lay back down in his sleeping bag. "It's some ungodly hour in the morning, Naruto. I really need to get some sleep so I can make that trip to the store tomorrow. Can't you take one of the others with you?"

"I already asked them to come with me, but Sasuke threatened to hurt me, and Sakura actually hurt me!" Naruto whined, sounding as though he were ready to burst into tears.

Kakashi sighed as he got out of his sleeping bag. "Alright. I suppose I'll have to take you myself then."

"Phew! That's good! I thought that I'd have to stay inside the tent instead and go p-"

"Please, Naruto. I don't want to hear it."

Kakashi grabbed a flashlight as Naruto got his on sandals on and both stepped out of the tent into the darkness.

_To be continued..._

Hope that chapter wasn't too painfully long. Now review if you wish to see the next chapter! Please?


	16. The outhouse

This will be the last chapter for about a week. It's shorter than the last few chapters. Sorry about that. Thanks for your reviews guys, and keep reviewing!

_Disclaimer: I don't friggin' own Naruto. _

As Kakashi and Naruto walked down to the washroom, Naruto jumped at every sound that came from the bushes.

"Naruto for goodness sake, it's just a squirrel!" Kakashi sighed.

"But what if it isn't?" Naruto whimpered.

"Then we run." Kakashi answered.

"Are we there yet?" Naruto asked. "I really have to go!"

"Yes, actually. We're here." Kakashi said, answering Naruto's questions as they stopped in front of an outhouse. Naruto stared at it apprehensively before speaking.

"...Sensei, what is it?" Naruto asked.

"It's the bathroom, of course." Kakashi replied.

"But it's dark and scary and really stinky!" Naruto cringed, plugging his nose with two fingers.

"Well, yeah. It's an outhouse after all. Now just take the flashlight and go." Kakashi ordered, desperately wanting to get back to the tent so he could sleep.

Naruto took the flashlight and tentatively stepped into the outhouse and shone his flashlight in.

"Actually all of the sudden, I don't need to go anymore! Weird, huh? Let's go back now!" Naruto said abruptly, heading back for the campsite, but Kakashi grabbed him by the collar of his pyjamas.

"Hold on. You just said a moment ago how badly you needed to go. And now you say that you don't need to go. That doesn't work, Naruto. I'm not going to be woken up in an hour from now to hear that you suddenly need to go again, so you're going to go **_now_**." Kakashi sternly told Naruto, putting emphasis on the last word.

"But it's scary in there!" Naruto whimpered.

"Naruto, it's just an outhouse! It's not going to eat you." Kakashi sighed.

"Yes it will!" Naruto cried. "What if I fall in-"

"You won't. I promise." Kakashi interrupted.

"Cross your heart and hope to die? Stick a needle in your eye?" Naruto asked.

"Um...yeah, sure. Whatever." Kakashi replied. "Now just go please so I can get back to sleep."

So Naruto went while Kakashi waited outside, muttering under his breath how stupid it was to be afraid of an outhouse and such, when suddenly Naruto let out a yelp and started screaming.

Now being trapped in a dark and smelly outhouse alone was very unappealing to Naruto, and he couldn't recall ever being on a mission or facing any situation that was as scary as the situation he was in right now. So he screamed very loudly.

"What's wrong?" Kakashi called out to Naruto, slightly alarmed.

"The flashlight burnt out! I can't get out of the outhouse! What am I going to do?" Naruto called back in fear.

"Oh man..." Kakashi groaned. "Just stay calm and try to feel your way out."

Naruto did as he was told, bumping into the walls three times before stumbling out of the outhouse, gasping the fresh air.

"Woah! That was scarier than any ninja I've ever faced before! I thought I was going to die in there!" Naruto gasped.

"And do that before you become Hokage? That would sure be a bad way for the future Hokage to go." Kakashi laughed.

"Hey, shut up!" Naruto cried half annoyed and half laughing as he playfully punched his sensei on the arm. He became oddly quiet for a moment as he realized something. "Hey, since the flashlight's burnt out now, how are we going to get back to the campsite without any light?"

Kakashi stood there, pondering for a moment. "...That is a good question. We'll feel our way back to the campsite and pray that we don't fall into a ditch or run into a bear along the way."

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Naruto asked, unconvinced.

"Just put your arms out in front of you. We can do it. We're ninjas." Kakashi replied, assuring his student.

Naruto whimpered as they started to feel their way back, waving their stretched arms out in front of them like a pair of blind people.

Back at the campsite, Sakura woke up for some odd reason and discovered that Naruto and Kakashi were missing, leaving her and Sasuke alone.

Her and Sasuke **_alone_**...

The fact and realization slowly hit her as she stifled a triumphant cheer. She called out his name first.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura softly called out.

Sasuke didn't stir.

Sakura edged closer to Sasuke.

Sasuke didn't stir.

She edged closer and closer every moment, until she was practically sitting on top of the poor guy.

Sakura started to (god forbid) stroke Sasuke's hair, purring "Sasuke-kuuuuuun", probably imagining weird fantasies of Sasuke and herself romping through flowery fields or something lame or even more disturbing than that.

Then she got the bright idea of trying to kiss Sasuke and was just about to do so, bending over his face, when…

"Sakura, what are you doing?"

Kakashi was poking his head into the tent, along with Naruto. Both were carrying a few scratches and numerous twigs in their hair after blindly falling into a ditch when trying to find their way back to the campsite. The two of them stared at Sakura bent over Sasuke, her face a little too close to his.

"Huh? Oh! I was-er-well, ummm...checking to see if Sasuke was still breathing! Yeah!" Sakura stammered, falsely smiling. "Well, good night guys!"

Sakura then flopped down on Naruto's sleeping bag, pretending to fall asleep on the spot...well she actually did right there and then.

"Ewww! Was Sakura trying to get all mushy with Sasuke?" Naruto grimaced.

"Unfortunately, it appears so. That Sakura really is too much sometimes." Kakashi sighed. "Now it's time to get some sleep."

"Alright. Goodnight, sensei. And goodnight to you too Sakura, you pervert!"

Naruto giggled at his insult as he rolled Sakura back onto her own sleeping bag, firmly placing himself between Sakura and Sasuke. He crawled into his sleeping bag, falling asleep shortly afterwards, mumbling things about ramen and becoming Hokage.

Sasuke began to sing softly in his sleep. Yes, he sang. God knows what, because he was mumbling it into his pillow. Sakura started to snore very loudly

Now Kakashi, unable to fall back asleep, had to endure Naruto's sleep talking, Sakura's snoring, and whatever else aside from singing Sasuke did in his sleep for the rest of the night.

"This is going to be a long night..." Kakashi grumbled as he put his pillow over his head, trying to block out all the noise.

The next morning, team 7 woke up, all a little groggy, except Kakashi who suffered the most from the lack of sleep that he was barely even awake and aware of what was going on, and Sasuke, who was also dead tired and refused to be dragged out of his sleeping bag altogether. Ok, so maybe only half of team 7 was awake.

Sakura made breakfast that morning, pouring the last of the saved cereal into everyone's bowls. Naruto stared sleepily at his cereal for a moment, forgetting how exactly to eat. He put a spoonful of cereal in his mouth and perked up immediately. Kakashi however, just stared and stared blankly at his breakfast, hardly even aware that it was breakfast.

"You should eat some, Kakashi-sensei! It'll wake you right up!" Naruto told the half-asleep jounin.

Kakashi stared at his breakfast momentarily before falling asleep and letting his head drop into the bowl of cereal.

"Woah! Kakashi-sensei's so hungry that he plunged face-first right into the cereal bowl with his mask on!" Naruto exclaimed.

"I think it's called sleep deprivation, Naruto. Not hunger." Sakura corrected him.

Naruto gulped down his cereal within a few moments. "Can I have some more cereal, Sakura-chan?" The blonde boy asked, still hungry.

"That was the last of it. We're now officially out of real food." Sakura sighed, fearing the amount of fish and rodents they would have to consume for the next few days.

"What? You mean we have to eat squirrels for breakfast now too? No way!" Naruto cried, not fond of the thought.

"Well, what else can we do until we get more food?"

"Yesterday, Kakashi-sensei said that he was going to get some more food. When is he going to get food anyways?" Naruto wondered.

"Hopefully soon. Unless he drowns himself in his cereal bowl first." Sakura replied.

Kakashi raised his head, face and hair soaked with milk and cheerios sticking to them.

"I'll go get the food now." Kakashi announced.

"Wow! You sure woke up fast!" Naruto said.

"I don't know whether I'll be back by tonight or back by tomorrow, but please do hunt and fish while I'm gone so you guys don't die on me. Other than that, please don't leave the campsite. I'm trusting you guys to be in charge of yourselves while I am gone." Kakashi told Naruto and Sakura.

Naruto began jumping up and down, "Ooh! Ooh! Can we call this a mission?"

"Sure, why not? You do that." The silver-haired jounin replied. "Well, I'm off. Good luck you two. And make sure that you get Sasuke out of the tent eventually."

With that said, Kakashi equipped himself with a small backpack and a few shuriken and kunai. He walked out of the campsite, leaving the three genins to their doom.

" ...We're all alone...in the wilderness...with practically no food!" Sakura mumbled.

"...PARTY!" Naruto shouted.

_To be continued..._

Just a note: Despite the part in this chapter where Sakura tried to kiss Sasuke, I was not trying to imply SasuSaku there. (No do I support that pairing.) I was trying to keep Sakura slightly in character, as kissing Sasuke while he's sleeping seems like a stupid thing she might do. This fanfic is not going to have pairings.

Don't forget to review, fools.


	17. The crazy old man

Because I love you guys all so much, I decided to upload this chapter earlier than I planned, as I found a computer where I'm staying, so no more 1 week wait for you guys! Also, thanks a lot for all of your reviews guys.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this before the last few chapters that this messed-up fanfic now has over 100 reviews. That's the most reviews I've ever gotten for a fanfic, so thanks a lot guys! (I really mean it. :D) Kind of hard for me to believe that something this odd has that many reviews so far. Keep up the great reviews, and hope you all enjoy this messed-up chapter!

_Disclaimer: Shadow Dragon Boss does not own Naruto. This makes Shadow Dragon Boss sad..._

Naruto laughed mischieveously as Kakashi disappeared out of sight.

"This is gonna be great! I'm gonna go swim in the lake, hike up that weird dangerous moutain, climb a tree, pull pranks, tease snakes, sink the canoe, act like a squirrel, eat a pinecone, and sleep with the wolves! And there's no adult to stop me from doing whatever the hell I wanna do!

"Hey! Did you forget about me? _I_ can still stop you from doing whatever the hell you want to do!" Sakura reminded him.

"Yeah, whatever. I'm gonna go draw on Sasuke's face now. Later!" Naruto replied as he ran off to the tent.

Sakura grabbed Naruto by the collar of his jacket, stopping him his tracks.

"We're in a bad situation right now! It's just us three kids against the wildreness with no adults to help us survive anymore! We have to get our own food and fend off bears, raccoons and other dangerous things alone! How can you be talking about ridiculous things such as acting like a rodent and climbing trees?" Sakura cried, ready to have a fit.

"But we're not kids." Naruto cut in. "We're preteens!"

"That's not the point!" Sakura shouted in frustrastion.

"But it is!" Naruto contradicted. "We can fend for ourselves, no problem! We're ninjas! Believe it!"

"You keep forgetting that we don't have our jutsus to protect ourselves anymore!" Sakura said, shaking her fist.

"Screw jutsus! I can survive just fine on my own without them! Believe it!" Naruto shot back confidently. "Now if you're done shouting at me, I'm going to go to the lake now.

Naruto bolted out of the campsite and down the trail towards the lake before Sakura could stop him.

"You could at least take the fishing rod with you so you can get some food while you're goofing off in the water!" Sakura shouted after him, but it wasn't like Naruto would pay any attention.

"Stupid boy...eating pinecones and sleeping with the wolves! Who does he think he is! That wild boy out of the 'Jungle Book'?" Sakura ranted, throwing her hands up in the air.

"Shut up already!" Came Sasuke's groggy and angry shout from the tent.

Naruto made his way down to the lake and jumped into the water, this time wearing his swimtrunks instead of "smartly" jumping in with his clothes like he did the day before. He swam around, rode on floating logs, harassed fish, and just did odd things that only Naruto would do in a lake.

Then Naruto spotted a small, old, two-person row boat on the shore of the lake.

"Cool! A boat!" Naruto cried, swimming back to the shore of the lake and approaching the boat, amazed at how he had missed seeing it when he first came to the lake. And then Naruto did the "smart" thing: Despite the fact that the boat was clearly not his, Naruto pushed the boat out to the edge of the lake and hopped in it, jumping with joy.

"Cool! I've got my own boat now!" Naruto gleamed. "That means I can give it a name! People always name their boats, right?"

Naruto got out of the boat, dragged it partially up onto the shore, and ran over to an old burnt out campfire. Naruto took a piece of charcoal from the burnt pile to write on the boat.

Naruto ran back to the boat and looked at it for a moment before speaking out loud. "I shall name you...the 'Naruto Boat' boat!"

Writing the name messily with the charcoal and adding a few badly drawn pictures to the side of the boat, the 'Naruto Boat' boat was now ready to set sail.

As the wind blew, Naruto ran back to the dead campfire to put his charcoal piece back. Naruto then suddenly spotted something moving in the tall grass. Curious (And just plain stupid), Naruto chased after the 'thing' in the grass, forgetting about riding in the boat momentarily.

Naruto pounced onto the 'thing' to find that it was a snake. "Alright! We're having snake for supper tonight!" Naruto cheered, clearly sick of eating only squirrels and fish already.

The peeved snake bit Naruto on the thumb, making Naruto yelp and let go of the captive snake, setting it free to slither away into the grass. Luckily for Naruto, it wasn't a poisonous snake.

"Damn...there goes dinner." Naruto grumbled. "Ah well, I don't think that snakes are supposed to taste very good anyways. At least I can still play with the boat!"

Naruto grinned as he stood back up, turning around to...

...find that the boat had been blown away from the shore and was already blown halfway across the lake.

"Oh crap! No! Come back!" Naruto cried frantically.

"What the hell have yeh done with mah boat?" An angry and raspy shout came from the trail.

Naruto turned around, facing the trail to see a grubby and crazy old man with his equally grubby and crazy old dog.

"Woah! It's the crazy old hobo-man from the campsite 2 days ago!" Naruto cried, pointing at the man.

"Yeh damn kid! Yeh blew away mah means of transportation!" The crazy old man raged.

"Well, you just left your boat sitting here!" Naruto accused.

As the crazy old man peered out towards his boat, his gaze widened. "You drew all over it!"

"Well, duh! You don't leave your pocessions lying around for other people to do stuff with them!" Naruto scolded.

"Well no one else has ever come here fer years, so I can leave my stuff lyin' here! But then you came along, yeh little bastard! Ya ruined mah boat, just like that other damn stupid ninja kid did from some 20 or so years ago. That one freakin' drowned mah pevious boat!" The crazy old man spat.

"Well maybe if you kept it where you lived instead of leaving it on the shore, then it wouldn't get taken, you ugly old idiot!" Naruto shouted back.

The crazy old man let out some deranged sound that was between and roar and a shout and charged at Naruto, followed by his dog.

"Aaaah! Sakura-chan! Sasuke! Help! There's a deranged old man trying to kill me!" Naruto cried as he ran away form the lake and up the trail.

As Naruto was much younger and more healthy than the crazy old geezer, he out ran him when he bolted up the trail. Sakura was just heading down to lake with the fishing rod when Naruto crashed into her

"Hey! Watch where you're going, dammit!" Sakura shouted angrily.

"Sakura-chan! Help me! There's a crazy old man with his equally crazy old dog chasing me down!" Naruto cried.

"Naruto, what did you do now?" Sakura demanded.

"I was only playing with his boat that I found lying on the shore!" Naruto defended.

Sakura hit Naruto on the head. Hard. "You idiot! You don't touch other people's things! Even a 5-year old knows that!"

"But I didn't know it was his! You gotta help me, Sakura-chan! He's creepy!"" Naruto wailed as he burst into hysterical tears, as though there was nothing more dreadful to him in the ninja world than facing a crazy old homocidal geezer...except maybe being trapped in an outhouse.

The crazy old man was hobbling up the path, pointing at Naruto.

"I'll get yooooooouuuuu!" The old crazy man called out menacingly.

"That is creepy!" Sakura squeaked, shaking.

Just when the crazy old man was a few feet infront of Sakura and Naruto, he suddenly stopped, wheezing and coughing, unable to run any further. He pointed his knarly finger at Naruto and Sakura.

"I'll never forget yeh, 'stupid blonde one' or yer little pink-haired girlfriend either!" The crazy old man growled.

"Girlfriend? WHAT!" Sakura shouted in rage.

"Shhh! Don't contradict him! It'll make him mad!" Naruto warned.

"I will get you one of these days when you least expect it! I will! I wiiiiillll!" The crazy old man wheezed and coughed as he hobbled back towards his campsite with his old flea-bitten mutt following at his heels.

"See what I mean?" Naruto cried at Sakura once the old hobo was out of earshot.

"...That was scary!" Whimpered Sakura. "If he comes to kill us in our sleep tonight, I'm blaming this all on you, Naruto!"

"I'm cold!" Naruto complained.

"Well, duh! You were just swimming in the lake, and you're still in your swimming trunks. Go back to the lake and get your clothes!" Sakura told him.

Sakura and Naruto headed back to the lake to get Naruto's clothes. With that done, Naruto headed back to the campsite, leaving Sakura to fish for their lunch.

Sakura looked out towards the middle of the lake where the crazy old man's boat was floating, unable to return to shore. Sakura shook her head.

"Oh, Naruto, you moron..."

_To be continued..._

Hopefully you understood the weird hillbilly-ish accent I gave the crazy old man. Expect more appearances from him. (Laughs evily) Anyhoo, if you guys could review, it would make my day complete. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	18. The bug spray

Thanks for your reviews, guys. Keep them coming! Constructive criticism is welcome as well remember. I need that stuff to get better after all!

_Disclaimer: Me no own Naruto._ _Naruto and its characters are belong to Masashi Kishimoto._ _Me likey using bad grammar._

While Sakura was out fishing at the lake, Naruto proceeded with his earlier plan to draw on Sasuke's face with a black marker. Amazingly enough, the so-called genius Uchiha Sasuke didn't stir as mischievous Naruto drew all over his face.

When Naruto was done, he slapped Sasuke on the face hard and shouted, "Wake up, sleepy head!"

Sasuke was indeed, now awake. He glared angrily at Naruto and tried to throw a punch at him, but was still too groggy and sleepy to aim properly.

"Ha ha! You missed, loser!" Naruto taunted, sticking his tongue out.

Sasuke shouted angrily, scaring Naruto out of the tent. Sasuke emerged a few moments later and sat down at the wooden picnic table, eating one of Naruto's "secretly stashed" away chocolate bars for his breakfast.

"Hey! That's mine!" Naruto shouted angrily.

"Go away. I'm trying to eat." Sasuke mumbled, waving his hand at Naruto dismissively.

Naruto glared at Sasuke for a moment as the famished Uchiha finished eating the chocolate bar.

"This stuff tastes like crap." Sasuke growled.

"Then why are you eating it?" Naruto cried as he threw his arms in the air.

"Because it's the only real food around here, and I didn't have dinner last night."

Naruto sighed frustrated as he folded his arms across his chest. "So what are we going to do today?"

"You are going to leave me alone today. That's what." Sasuke growled as he glared at Naruto with his most serious glare that he could muster after waking up.

Seeing Sasuke try to look so serious when his face was covered with scribbles, swirls, flowers, smiley faces, and various other ridiculous doodles, Naruto couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"What's so funny, you moron!" Sasuke angrily demanded as Naruto laughed at him.

"Oooh! Did Sasuke-chan wake up on the wrong side of the bed-I mean, sleeping bag today?" Naruto giggled as he taunted the grouchy Uchiha further.

"Sasuke-chan" angrily took out a fork from the camping supply box on the picnic table and threw it at Naruto. It missed him by a centimetre and flew into a tree trunk.

"Woah! No need to get worked up about it!" Naruto cried, shaking a bit, as the fork had just barely missed him.

"Just leave me alone..." Sasuke grumbled as he lay his head on the table, falling asleep again as mosquitoes began to swarm around him and Naruto.

"Not these damn bugs again! Go away!" Naruto growled, swinging his arms around in a crazy manner as Sasuke slumbered on, providing himself as a feast to the mosquitoes.

Sakura came back from the lake, holding a fish. "Hey guys! I brought lunch!"

Naruto had finally found the bug spray and sprayed some on himself.

"Alright, Sakura-chan! You're awesome! Believe it!"

"Stop saying that at the end of your sentences. It's annoying!" Sakura scolded.

"But it was a compliment." Naruto whined.

"Hey Sasuke-kun! I brought us lunch." Sakura said, gently shaking the slumbering Sasuke's shoulder. Sakura rolled his arm away so she could see him. She screamed as she looked at the disfigured face of Sasuke.

Sasuke leapt up to his feet as Sakura's piercing scream filled the air. "What? What is it? What's going on?" Sasuke cried.

Sakura pointed a quivering finger at Sasuke. "Y-you're face! It-it's-it's-"

"Absolutely covered in mosquito bites!" Naruto cut in laughing. "Ha ha! Your face is all puffy and funny looking!"

"Damn bugs..." Sasuke grumbled. "Whatever. The bites will go away eventually."

"But are you sure that you're okay? How did you get all of those weird black marks on your face? Should would try to find help?" Sakura asked in a very worried tone of voice.

"What black marks on my face?" Sasuke demanded.

Naruto shuffled back a few feet, whistling innocently.

"Sakura...get me mirror." Sasuke said in a calm but dangerously angry voice as he glanced at Naruto's suspicious behaviour.

Sakura quickly ran into the tent and fetched her hand mirror from her duffle bag. She handed it to Sasuke, who took it and looked at his malformed reflection. To his horror, there were indeed black markings. The markings were actually pictures, pictures of flowers, swirls, bunnies, and other happy precious things scribbled onto his face. As well as his face being swollen up and covered in bug bites, Sasuke did indeed look quite hideous.

It took everything Sasuke had to prevent himself from screaming in horror and rage and killing Naruto.

"Ok, first I'll take care of the bug bites." Sasuke mumbled to himself.

Sasuke tried to shoo the swarming bugs away from him with his arms as he rummaged through the equipment box for the bug spray. "Where's the goddamned bug spray?"

"I have it, Sasuke! Here, I'll put some on for you." Naruto offered as he took the bug spray and sprayed it right into Sasuke's eyes.

"Naruto, you idiot! What the hell were you thinking?" Sasuke shouted, covering his stinging eyes with his hands.

"I was just trying to help! At least the bugs aren't swarming around you anymore, right?"

Sasuke angrily grabbed Naruto by the collar of his jacket. "Maybe not, but stinging bug spray in the eyes is ten times worse, you stupid little bastard!" Sasuke snarled.

"Hey! Don't call me a bastard!" Naruto shouted.

"Guys, let's not fight! We still have to get ourselves food for tonight and possibly tomorrow." Sakura cut in.

Sasuke let go of Naruto's arm. "She's right. We should stop fooling around and get some food." He said as he took a wet towel to wipe the felt markings off of his face

Naruto just crossed his arms and scowled.

"We'll get some food now and have our lunch afterwards." Sasuke announced, taking charge of the situation.

"Yes, yes! You're our leader, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura beamed.

"Hey! How come Sasuke gets to be the leader, huh?" Naruto cut in.

"Because I'm smarter, stronger, and better than you are." Sasuke replied, smirking.

"No you're not! Don't flatter yourself!"

"Naruto, just shut up! You're staying here to guard the fish while Sasuke and I go get food." Sakura told Naruto.

"I don't want to stay here! It's boring!" Naruto whined.

"I have a better idea. Why not just let Naruto do the food gathering and hunting." Sasuke said.

"Good idea, Sasuke! You hear that, Naruto? You're doing the hunting!"

"What? But-" Naruto started.

"You were just saying how boring it would be to stay here, so occupy yourself by getting food! Now get your kunai and scram!" Sakura commanded.

Naruto sulkily took his weapons and headed off into the woods.

"Hold on, Naruto." Sasuke called out. "An idiot like you obviously can't handle this task by yourself, so Sakura will go with you."

"What? But-" Sakura started.

"Just go." Sasuke said firmly.

"Of course, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura nodded, taking her weapons and following after Naruto.

_To be continued..._

(Why the hell do I write that at the end of every chapter?)


	19. The mushrooms

Only 4-5 reviews for the last chapter? C'mon guys, help me out here! (For those of you who did review, thank you.) Maybe it's because I didn't write "Please review." at the end of the previous chapter. (Seems that had some bad results.) Do review, folks! It really does help me out.

_Disclaimer: ...Do I really need to say it?_

"Hey, Sakura!"

"Naruto, be more quiet! Whisper!"

"Oh, sorry. Hey, Sakura!"

"What is it?"

"I think I see a rabbit over there!"

"Naruto, that's a stick, not a rabbit! Are you blind?"

"Woah! Maybe I am...I sure hope not!"

Naruto and Sakura were lying down on their stomachs in the forest, looking for rabbits, squirrels and anything else that was edible.

"This is boring. I'm outta here!" Naruto said as he rose up, only to scare off a nearby rabbit that was coming closer to one of their baited traps.

This almost caused Sakura to also rise up and smack Naruto, but instead she just remained on the ground and cried to herself silently, for that had been the 7th animal that Naruto had scared off within an hour.

"Hey, what's up with you, Sakura-chan? Well, I'm going to look for some better food. See you around!"

Naruto walked away deeper into the woods, searching around for something else to eat. He suddenly spotted a deer nearby, eating away at ferns.

"Alright! I found something!" Naruto grinned as he started to approach the deer. "I bet Sakura will be real happy when she sees the food I got!

And did Naruto throw his kunai at the deer? No. He instead got down all fours and began to imitate the deer by eating the ferns, figuring if the deer could eat it, then so could a ninja. Naruto chewed for a second before spitting the ferns out.

"This is gross!" Naruto spat as he stood up and turned towards the deer, half shouting at it.

"How can you eat this disgusting crap?" Naruto cried, his loud voice scaring the deer off, still stupidly unaware that he had let the real food that was standing just 5 feet away from him escape.

Naruto shrugged and walked on for a while. Some time later, he spotted something that stood out among the brown and green shades of the forest; Red mushrooms with white spots stood, beckoning to the hungry shinobi. Naruto stooped down, picked a mushroom, and took a bite of it.

"Not great, but it tastes better than that fern. And mushrooms are in a lot of foods, so it's probably fine!" Naruto concluded as he picked a bunch of mushrooms and carried them back to the campsite.

"Sakura-chan and Sasuke are going to be so happy to eat these for a change instead of dead rodents!" Naruto grinned as he made his way back to the campsite, munching on a few mushrooms as well. As he approached the campsite where Sasuke was still lounging and Sakura had just returned, he began to feel a bit funny.

"Wooow, something doesn't feel right." Naruto said, staggering a bit.

"Naruto, why did you leave Sakura?" Sasuke asked annoyed.

"Believe me, I was better off left without that idiot! I actually managed to trap 3 mice and find some berries." Sakura told Sasuke as she lay the berries and mouse on the worn down wooden picnic table.

"Oh yeah! Guys, I got us mushrooms to eat! They'll probably taste real good when you cook them!" Naruto said, showing the mushrooms to his team-mates.

Sasuke looked at the suspiciously colourful spotted mushrooms in the wobbling Naruto's hands.

"Naruto, I don't think those are-" Sasuke started.

"Hey Sasuke, I feel weird..." Naruto said in a slightly airy voice.

"You idiot! Don't tell me you ate those mushrooms without us checking if they were okay!" Sakura cried.

"Well, just a few." Naruto replied.

"Well, just a few can be enough to knock you dead." Sasuke warned Naruto.

"Die? Don't say it's so! Me no die! Gahr! Frogs!" Naruto shouted out, making weird gestures.

"Oh great! He's already going crazy from eating those things." Sakura groaned, shaking her head

Naruto stumbled around for a moment before stopping and looking at Sasuke with a half-dazed look in his eyes.

"Sasuke, sweetie...you're looking lovely tonight!" Naruto said in a rather loopy sounding voice.

(A/N. I can hear the SasuNaru fans cheering now...)

"Durh! Armadillo!" Naruto randomly shouted and began to laugh.

"Ok, let's not panic!" Sakura said, obviously starting to panic. "Naruto! How many fingers am I holding up?"

Sakura frantically held up three fingers in front of Naruto's face. Naruto stared for a few seconds before replying.

"Ur...blue!"

Naruto then lost consciousness and fell over on the ground, twitching.

"You better go put him in the tent. I'll go get some water." Sasuke told Sakura.

"Wait for me!" Sakura cried, not wanting to be left alone with the crazy-and-now-passed-out shinobi.

Sakura quickly placed Naruto in the tent before running after Sasuke. They both ran down to the lake to get the water, passing the crazy old man's campsite on the way.

"Yah'll pay fer what yer little blonde friend did! Yah'll paaaaaaayyyy!" The crazy old man wheezed as he shook his fist at Sakura and Sasuke when they ran past.

"What the hell was that about?" Sasuke asked.

"Naruto took that old hillbilly geezer's boat this morning and got it stuck out in the middle of the lake. The old guy's really mad and creepy now." Sakura explained. "But you'll protect us from him, right Sasuke-kun?"

"Yeah, sure...whatever." Sasuke replied, not crazy on encountering the crazy old hillbilly man again.

They arrived at the lake, collecting water for the ill Naruto and ran back to the campsite, passing the old creepy man again, who shouted more creepy threats at them.

"He's really starting to scare me!" Sakura shivered.

"He's just as raving idiot. He won't hurt us. He's too old to do any harm." Sasuke assured himself and Sakura.

They arrived back at the campsite and rushed into the tent, splashing water onto Naruto to bring him back to his senses.

"It's not working! If we don't make him better, Kakashi-sensei's going to murder us!" Sakura wailed.

"No he won't. He's too laid-back and lazy to do that." Sasuke assured her. "But there's one other thing that might get Naruto to wake up."

Sasuke took his hand and slapped Naruto hard across the face. Naruto gave out a startled yelp.

"I've always wanted to do that." Sasuke smirked.

"It seems to have worked though." Sakura said, relieved that they got a sane reaction from Naruto.

"Just a little longer, sensei." Naruto mumbled as he groggily opened his eyes.

"I'm not your sensei, you idiot. It's me, Sasuke."

"Sasuke? What are you doing on my sleeping bag? Get off!" Naruto growled as he made an attempt to push Sasuke off, but only managing to lightly roll himself into the Uchiha.

"He's still weak, but at least we know that he's got his senses back." Sakura sighed in relief.

"Luckily, he didn't eat very many mushrooms. He should be ok." Sasuke added.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, those mushrooms were weird…can I have some more?"

"No!" Sakura and Sasuke both shouted in unison.

"But I'm still hungry! Can we eat something now?"

"He's weak, so we better put some food into his system quickly in case those mushrooms have any after effects that mess him up any further." Sasuke said.

"Good idea. I'll make up lunch for all of us." Sakura replied, stepping out of the tent.

So Sakura cooked the mouse, fish, and prepared the berries she collected. When she was done, she brought some to Naruto.

"Ok, Naruto. Eat up." Sakura told the blonde genin.

"But I don't want to eat a mouse or fish! I want ramen!" Naruto

"We don't have ramen, remember? Now stop being picky and just eat the meat and berries!" Sakura commanded in a more impatient tone of voice.

"No mouse! No fish! Ramen!" Naruto continued to sit with his arms crossed, making a pouty face. Sasuke walked into the tent.

"What's the problem now? It's not the mushrooms acting up again, is it?"

"Probably not, but he refuses to eat the mouse, fish, or berries. He says he wants ramen." Sakura explained to Sasuke.

"Well, we don't have ramen. We only have fish, mice and berries." Sasuke told Naruto.

"I'm sick of eating rodents and fish!" Naruto grumbled.

" ...Alright then. Fine." Sasuke said as he took the plate of mouse, fish, and berries off of Naruto's lap. He took the fish and shoved it in Naruto's mouth. Naruto freaked out, pieces of fish flying from his mouth.

"Mmrf! Sasuke! You're-gak!-making me choke!"

"You've got to eat or you're going to die, and if you die, Kakashi-sensei's going to blame me! So eat if you wish to live without seeing mine or Sakura's fist or foot in your face!" Sasuke commanded angrily.

"And you better finish eating it because it's the only fish we've got, and we don't want it going to waste!" Sakura added.

"Warn me before you stuff something down my throat next time, will you? I almost choked to death!" Naruto shouted angrily as he finally chocked the fish down.

"Naruto, just eat the damn mouse and berries now." Sasuke said in a deadly tone of voice.

Naruto reluctantly took a piece of mouse meat, mashing it up with the berries, and took a bite.

"Hey! If you mash the berries with the mouse, it doesn't taste half as bad!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Eww! Mice and berries mixed together? Gross!" Sakura frowned, making a face of disgust.

"At least he's eating it. Whatever makes him eat his food is good." Sasuke said.

As soon as Naruto was finished, he bounded out of the tent.

"How does he do that?" Sakura cried.

"Alright! I feel better already! Let's go do something fun!"

"Yeah right. Like what?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto pointed to Michael, the SUV, smiling. "We could-"

"No, Naruto! We are not going to steal Kakashi-sensei's vehicle and mess around with it and crash it into a tree or a ditch." Sasuke said sternly.

"Or a lake!" Sakura added, glaring at Naruto to put emphasis on what Naruto had done with the crazy old man's boat.

"Well, not a bad idea actually! But that wasn't what I had in mind. I was thinking of getting that canoe off of Michael so we could go canoeing in the lake." Naruto told his two team-mates.

"That's...not a bad idea actually." Sakura nodded.

"But how are we going to get that thing off of the car?" Sasuke pointed out.

"There are three of us. We can do it no problem. Believe it!" Naruto replied with confidence.

"Well, I suppose we could give it a try. It's not like we have anything else better to do." Sasuke said.

"Well, we could climb that mountain that I wanted to climb yesterday instead of canoeing." Naruto suggested.

"NO!" Sakura and Sasuke both shouted, feet still aching from dropping stones on them.

"Alright, then let's go canoeing!" Naruto cheered.

With that decided, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura positioned themselves so they could get the canoe off of Michael. In the process of bringing the canoe down, however, Sakura's back gave out under all of the weight, causing her to drop the canoe on Naruto's foot. So with two people out of the action, there was no way Sasuke would carry the canoe solo down to the lake. So they left the canoe half propped up on Michael and half lying on Naruto's foot.

"Hello? Hey guys! The canoe's crushing my foot and it really hurts!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke managed to lift the corner of the canoe off of Naruto's foot as Sakura painfully crawled back to the tent to rest her injured back.

"What are we going to do now?" Naruto asked, rubbing his sore foot. "I'm bored!"

"Well that's too bad for you." Sasuke replied.

"But seriously! What are we going to do all day?"

"I don't know. Go figure that out by yourself."

"Fine then. I'm going go try to crash Michael into a tree now!"

"Anything but that, you moron! Though it's not like you could do that anyways without the keys or gas."

"Then let's go do something! I'm sick of doing nothing! Admit it, you're bored too!"

"Not really, I have my music to listen to."

Naruto groaned in defeat as Sasuke walked into the tent to plug his headphones into his ears and turn on his mp3 player/iPod/whatever, only to remember that it had run out of batteries a few days ago.

"Damn! Forgot about that...I should've told Kakashi-sensei to go pick some batteries up while he went to go get the food." Sasuke grumbled.

So with that option out, Sasuke left the tent and stood before Naruto. "Alright. Let's go take a look around the lake since we have nothing else better to do."

Naruto let out a shout of glee as he leapt into the air. This walk was definitely something that Sasuke wasn't looking forward to. And there would be a good and painful reason later on why he wouldn't.

_To be continued..._

Now please please _please_ review!


	20. The trap

Holy crap, 20 chapters! You guys can tell I was really bored, right? But only 3 reviews for the last chapter? ;; The reviews seem to have been declining with each chapter, but maybe it's because the last few chapters were boring? This chapter should be more amusing and interesting, so I'm sorry if the last chapters have been boring you in any way.

Another note; Updating might be slower now since it's September and I have school back on. I was hoping to get this fanfic up by the end of the summer, as it is a summer-themed fanfic. Well, fat chance of that happening now as summer's over. It might be mid-late September or October before the whole thing gets posted up. So sorry! I'll try to make it quick.

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or its characters. Never have, never will. _

"Hey! What's that?"

"How should I know?"

This was the 5th time that day that Naruto pointed something out to Sasuke and asked him what it was, and it was beginning to get on Sasuke's nerves, as they had only been walking for a slow and painful 5 minutes.

"How big is this freaking lake anyways?" Sasuke growled.

"However big it is, we should explore around the whole thing!" Naruto grinned, fists balling up in excitement.

Sasuke shuddered at the thought of hours and hours of trying to keep Naruto occupied by walking around the lake, Naruto babbling on and on without end.

Naruto was suddenly distracted by what looked like 6 tree branches stood up against each other in a certain way with one lying on top to resemble a sort of tent-shaped shelter.

"Who do you think made that?" Naruto asked Sasuke, pointing to the shelter.

"How should I know?" Sasuke said for the 6th time that day. "Whoever started it sure didn't finish it."

A pile of branches and thin rope lay nearby. Naruto darted off towards the materials, kneeling down.

"I'm going to make it into a fort!" Naruto grinned, beginning to fiddle around with the tree branches and rope. "Want to help, Sasuke?"

"Fool. That kind of stuff is for losers." The grouchy Uchiha scowled.

With that said, Sasuke wandered off into the trees as he spotted some berries nearby. Naruto shrugged and went back to building his fort out of branches and sticks.

Sasuke picked the berries and stored them in his back pocket for later. As he wandered a bit deeper into the forest, a loud 'snap' sounded off as a toothed-metal trap jumped out of the dirt and leaves where Sasuke stepped, clamping down hard onto his foot.

This obviously caused Sasuke much pain, and he screamed a very profane and naughty word out loudly, sending all the birds in the trees nearby taking off into the sky. Naruto obviously heard this too and shouted out to Sasuke.

"You know you shouldn't say bad words like that, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted in Sasuke's direction. "Are you alright in there?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth in pain and anger at Naruto as he tried to pry the trap off his foot. "I'm fine! Ow!"

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked. "You sound like you're in pain or pissed off about something!"

"I said I'm fine, dammit!"

"Ok, if you say so! I'll be here if you need me!"

Sasuke cursed under his breath as he looked at the metal trap on his foot, trying to figure out how to get it off his foot without tearing any of his toes off in the process.

"Real smart. I thought only Naruto could fall for these stupid kind of traps!" Sasuke muttered under his breath, groaning in pain.

Meanwhile back at the tent, Sakura was beginning to wonder where Sasuke had gone when she had heard his loud and profane scream.

"Sasuke's in trouble!" Sakura cried. She stumbled out of the tent, forgetting about her sore back, only to tumble face first into the dirt.

"Ow! Real smart, Sakura." The pink-haired kunoichi muttered to herself as she tried to get back on her feet. Painfully and slowly, she began to make her way to the lake.

"I'm-ow!-coming, Sasuke! Ouch!"

Back near the lakeshore in the forest, Sasuke let out something between an angry growl and a painful scream as he tried, but failed), to get the trap off of his foot.

"You could've just told me that you had a trap stuck on your foot. I could've helped get it off of you sooner!"

Sasuke looked up as he saw Naruto crouched down in front of him. He had been so fixed on getting the trap off his foot that he hadn't even seen or heard Naruto approaching him.

"Naruto, what the hell are you doing here?" Sasuke grumbled.

"I finished my fort. See it over there? I had lots of fun making it!" Naruto grinned as he pointed beyond the trees, where just barely visible, was the shelter tree branches, now complete. It still looked like a tent made out of branches, but at least it was stably standing and it could keep out the most of any rain that fell. "That shelter-building activity that Kakashi-sensei made us do really helped!" Naruto added.

"So you've finished already...how long have I been trying to get this thing off my foot now?" Sasuke mumbled to himself.

"Oh, probably for about 2 hours now, because that's how long it took me to finish that fort." Naruto answered Sasuke, much to the Uchiha's displeasure. "But I didn't think you were this stupid to get caught in a silly trap like that!"

"It was hidden well under the leaves and dirt! I couldn't see it." Sasuke defended.

"Well, DUH! It's a trap! Of course it was hidden and of course you couldn't see it! That's the whole point of a trap!" Naruto pointed out.

Sasuke was beginning to become aware that Naruto was disturbingly starting to sound like the smart one.

"Whatever, I didn't ask for your opinion or help. I can get this thing off myself." Sasuke said, trying to regain his cool and calm composure.

"You sure?"

"Yes, now go away!"

"But I don't have anything else better to do. And your foot's bleeding! I could help get that thing off, you know." Naruto offered.

"No! Just go collect some berries or something while I get this off. There are tons of them around here and we need as much food as possible if we want to survive another day, week, month, however long we're stuck here for. I can get this off myself. I don't need your help!"

"Ok then. Have fun playing with that trap!" Naruto laughed as he rose to his feet and began picking berries off the bushes around the area, while Sasuke growled angrily, desperately trying to gently pry the trap off his foot.

Half an hour later, Sasuke was still trying to work the trap off from his now rather bloody foot, and Naruto was attempting to communicate with a chipmunk, crouching down and making squeaky chattering sounds.

Sasuke gave a groan of frustration and sat there, watching Naruto imitate the chipmunk by shoving some berries into his mouth. Sasuke's stomach gave a hungry growl.

"Maybe I better eat some of those berries too so I have energy to get this bloody trap off my foot." Sasuke mumbled to himself.

He was about to reach into his pocket when Naruto cried out at Sasuke.

"Sasuke! Your butt's bleeding now too!" Naruto cried, pointing at Sasuke's red-stained white shorts.

Sasuke looked at his rear pocket and to his horror, he saw red stains. "What? How the hell-" He suddenly remembered the berries that he had picked and put in his rear pocket before he got his foot caught in the trap. He realized that he had probably squashed the berries when he had fell over on the ground after the trap had got his foot.

"Wow, bleeding from your butt...that's bad, but it's hilarious too!" Naruto laughed.

"Shut up, you dumb ass. It's just some squashed berries I put in my pocket earlier." Sasuke grumbled.

"Oh. Do you need some more berries then?" Naruto asked.

Now as we know, Sasuke is a rather proud person, so he didn't want to accept Naruto's offer to pick some berries for him. So being the proud bastard he is, he would ignore Naruto's offer to help him and get the berries himself. Sasuke stood up on his good foot and then attempted to stand up on the trapped foot. Sasuke yelped in pain as he stepped on his injured foot and fell back down.

"You sure you don't want help with getting that thing off your foot, Sasuke?" Naruto offered once again.

"No! I don't want help!" Sasuke snarled.

"Are you hungry? You can have some of the berries I picked." Naruto said, holding some out for Sasuke.

"I can get the berries off the bush myself!" Sasuke growled.

Sasuke knew he wouldn't be able to stand up, so he flopped down on his belly and used his arms to drag himself over to the nearest berry bush. He reached up to the nearest berry on the bush, but he couldn't quite reach it.

Now as these metal jaw traps are always chained into the earth in order to not allowing the caught prey to wander off far, Sasuke couldn't travel more than a couple of feet away from the trap spot. Sasuke swung his hand up at the berry, trying to reach it, but alas, the trap would not allow him to go any nearer to the berry bush.

"Want help with that?" Naruto asked, sitting down and watching Sasuke's desperate attempts.

"NO!"

Sasuke swung his hands at the berry bush, trying reaching the berry for about 10 minutes before Naruto picked the berry, and placed it in front of Sasuke's nose on the ground.

"You should learn to depend less on yourself, Sasuke. We're a team after all!" Naruto told him, grinning.

Sasuke grumbled something before he grudgingly took the berry and ate it.

Just then, Sakura reached where the two boys were and gasped at Sasuke's bloody foot caught in the trap and nearly fainted.

"What happened to you?" Sakura cried.

"My foot got caught in a hidden trap." Sasuke replied through gritted teeth.

"Naruto you idiot! Why didn't you help him? What if he bleeds to death?"

"But he wouldn't let me help him!" Naruto defended.

"Enough with your excuses!" Sakura shouted, getting angry.

"I specifically told him not to help me several times, so it's not his fault." Sasuke told the angered kunoichi. "I'm not going to bleed to death, Sakura. I'll be fine."

"But we've got to get that trap off of your foot now!"

"I can do it myself. You guys go back to the campsite. I'll catch up." Sasuke told his to team-mates.

"Don't be ridiculous! You need help!" Sakura objected.

Sasuke said nothing as he reached into his back pouch to take out a kunai so he could try to break the trap. But he reached into his pouch to find nothing. He had left the last of his weapons back at the campsite.

Sasuke let out a curse. He then saw a rock lying a few feet away from him. He reached his hand out to get it, but like the berry on the bush, the rock was too far from his reach.

"Sasuke, let me get that for you." Sakura offered.

"No! Leave that rock there." Sasuke commanded. "Leave it right there! I can get it myself! You'll see..."

He kept stretching his arm out and pulling against the chain, reaching towards it for a good five minutes until he stopped for a moment, catching his breath. Sakura quickly moved near the rock, pushing it gently with her foot closer to where Sasuke's hand was while he wasn't looking. He looked up, tried to grab the rock and grasped it in his hand, not noticing that it had been pushed closer to him.

"See? I told you I could do it myself! I don't need you losers to survive in these woods." Sasuke smirked in triumph.

Sakura laughed nervously "congratulating" Sasuke, as Naruto rolled his eyes and sighed.

Sasuke took the rock and began beating at the chain, not allowing Sakura or Naruto help him. After one painful hour, Sasuke finally broke the chain, now free from being chained to the ground, but not free from the metal jaws of the trap. Too bad. More pain for him.

"Good job! Now we can get the trap off your foot!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Aw man! How long is that going take?" Naruto groaned.

Sasuke was too exhausted from breaking the trap chain to argue against them taking the trap off for him, so Naruto and Sakura tried to pry the trap off of Sasuke's foot with their hands. Just when they almost seemed to have it off, Sasuke would shout in pain, and this sent Sakura freaking out, refusing to cause Sasuke any more pain and letting go of the trap

"Hey! A little help with taking this thing off?" Naruto asked. "I can't do it alone, Sakura!"

"I'm sorry! I just can't do it! Sasuke's in too much pain for me to pry that trap off of him!" Sakura whimpered on the verge of tears.

"Aw man!" Naruto groaned, "Where's Kakashi-sensei when you need him? He'd know what to do in a situation like this."

Naruto stood there silently as though he was expecting Kakashi to appear. But quite obviously, he didn't.

Sakura was sobbing and was practically hyperventilating for that matter. "W-what i-if you d-d-die S-Sasuke-kun?" Sakura chocked between tears.

"Dammit you guys! I'm not going to die from a simple trap wound! Stop freaking out and just carry me back to the camp. We'll rest there." Sasuke grumbled.

Sakura stopped sobbing and hyperventilating for a moment to listen to Sasuke. "Good idea! I'll help carry you."

Sakura lifted Sasuke off the ground a couple of feet, but with her previously injured back from the canoe incident, she let out a cry of pain, dropping Sasuke onto the ground.

"Thanks, Sakura. Great job!" Sasuke grumbled, gritting his teeth as he made his sarcastic remark.

"Naruto, you're going to have to carry him." Sakura told her team-mate.

"What? Me? But I can't carry him! My back will get injured too!" Naruto whined.

"Just do it, unless you want to sleep out here with the bears!" Sakura growled, holding up a shaking fist threateningly.

"On second thought…here Sasuke, grab onto my shoulders and I'll see if I can piggy back you back to the campsite if you don't crush my back first." Naruto said, bending to the will of Sakura's fist.

So Naruto, with some help with Sakura, got an embarrassed and pride-shattered Sasuke onto Naruto's back.

(Man, I can really hear those SasuNaru fans now...)

Naruto staggered under the weight of Sasuke on his back, but put a determined face on.

"This is nothing! It's just like training, that's all! I can do this no problem! Believe it!"

But 5 minutes down the road heading back to the campsite, Naruto collapsed under the weight of Sasuke, unable to get up.

"I can't go another step! You're so heavy, Sasuke!" Naruto groaned.

"Are you calling me fat?" Sasuke demanded, clearly offended.

"Don't you dare call Sasuke-kun fat!" Sakura shouted, ready to pummel Naruto's head in.

"I never did! I just said that he was heavy, that's all! Doesn't mean that he's fat." Naruto grumbled.

"But you made it sound like he was!" Sakura accused.

"Guys, we're arguing again. Let's get back to the campsite before it gets too dark to even find our way back." Sasuke cut in.

"Here, I'll try to help Sasuke-kun." Sakura offered. "Put one arm around me and the other around Naruto and try to hop on your good foot."

Sasuke put an arm around Sakura, and the other around Naruto. Sasuke frowned, turning a bit red.

"Now don't you two get any weird ideas from this!" Sasuke warned.

"You're sick! Why would I like you in that kind of way?" Naruto frowned, making a disgusted face.

Sakura sighed like she was in heaven as they all painfully made their way back to the campsite.

_To be continued... _

Please keep the reviews coming! It'll make me so happy.


	21. The surprise arrival

Wow! There were quite a few reviews for chapter 20! Thanks a lot guys. It's always fun to receive and read reviews, and sometimes even respond to them. Keep sending them in guys. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

_Disclaimer: Naruto are not belong to I._

The 3 tired genins arrived back at the camp. Naruto and Sakura with sore backs, and Sasuke with a sore foot still caught in the metal trap.

"Hey! Are we going have dinner? We've had no breakfast and only a bit of lunch!" Naruto piped.

"My back is too sore for me to cook now. I just want to go to sleep." Sakura sighed.

"Good plan. I need some sleep too." Sasuke said.

"With that trap still on your foot?" Naruto gaped.

"He's right. We can't just leave it on there!" Sakura said, suddenly ignoring her sore back.

"Sure we can. I'll work on getting it off my foot tomorrow." Sasuke replied.

"Sasuke, that's not healthy! What if your foot becomes infected, or it falls off in the middle of the night, or something terrible like that?" Sakura cried frantically.

"That's ridiculous! My foot's not going to randomly fall off in the middle of the night. Besides, you guys are too sore to help me out right now. Let's worry about it tomorrow when we have more strength."

So the 3 genins headed into their tent to get some rest. Fat chance of that with Sasuke, as he was in so much pain that he couldn't fall asleep. So he listened to Naruto and Sakura's chatter.

"Hey Sasuke! If you can't get that trap off your foot soon and since we're out of weapons, you're going to have to chew your own foot off like animals do when they get their feet caught in traps!" Naruto told Sasuke, grinning mischievously at the thought.

Sakura smacked Naruto as Sasuke gave a shudder at the thought of amputating his own foot off.

"Stop talking about Sasuke's foot! You're scaring him!"

"No he's not. My foot won't get that bad. I'm sure of it."

"I hope so too. Kakashi-sensei will know what to do when he gets back." Sakura assured Sasuke.

"You mean _if_ he gets back." Sasuke corrected.

"He said he was supposed to be back by tonight." Sakura said, a trace of worry in her voice. "I wonder where he is now and how he's doing..."

"I wonder what's behind his mask..." Naruto thought out loud.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Sakura asked, staring at Naruto.

"Who cares? It's fun to wonder! He's gotta have big fat lips! Or maybe pointy fangs, or really ugly crooked teeth!"

"Ever consider that it might not be his mouth, but his nose?" Sakura suggested.

"Yeah! Maybe he has a bunch of nose hair or tons of warts on his nose! Or maybe...what if he has really bad acne on his face?"

"Oh please. You could be making up all sorts of stupid theories of what our sensei's face really looks like. Why don't you two just go to sleep already." Sasuke growled, wanting to get some sleep.

"Oh...of course, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura replied, eager to obey Sasuke's wishes.

"You're no fun, Sasuke!" Naruto huffed, silently giving him the finger in the dark.

"I'm going to try to sleep now. Goodnight." Sasuke merely replied.

"That means quiet, so go to sleep, Naruto." Sakura said sternly to her rambunctious team-mate.

"Aw, alright. Fine." Naruto grumbled as he lay down, not feeling the slightest bit tired.

The three genin lay in their sleeping bags for a few moments, listening to the wind rustles through the leaves and dozing off, until Naruto broke the silence.

"Ever think that Kakashi-sensei might have a moustache or a beard under that mask?" Naruto asked out loud in the dark.

Sakura smothered a laugh into her pillow, trying not to look or sound stupid in Sasuke's presence or anger him.

"Just shut up, you dumb ass!" Sasuke growled.

"Party pooper!" Naruto scowled, sticking his tongue out at Sasuke. "Well, I still think it's acne he's trying to hide."

"We really should go to sleep now." Sakura told Naruto.

They attempted once more to fall asleep, but an old raspy voice began to call out.

"I'm gonna get yeh..."

Sakura gave out a small shriek.

"What was that?" Naruto cried out.

"It's that creepy old man from earlier on today!" Sakura answered, sounding on the verge of tears.

"Oh-no. Not again..." Sasuke groaned.

"If he tries to do anything to us, we can't fight back in our injured state!" Sakura told her two team-mates in fear. And then she began cry.

"Toughen up already! We can take him!" Sasuke scolded Sakura angrily.

"But he's really creepy and scary, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura sniffled as she tried to stop crying.

"And he has a dog with him!" Naruto added, voice shaking.

"Well good for him! Maybe if we actually try to shut up, he'll go away." Sasuke suggested, teeth gritted.

So they all lay still and stayed absolutely silent, hardly daring to breath, listening in fear as the crazy old man's footsteps came closer and closer. His silhouette could clearly be seen through the tent.

"Holy crap! He has an axe with him!" Naruto screamed.

"You idiot! I told you to be quiet!" Sasuke growled, thumping his fist upon Naruto's head.

"There goes our 'be quiet' plan." Sakura groaned.

"Don't kill us! Do it tomorrow!" Naruto cried and pleaded to the crazy old man outside of the tent.

"What?" Sakura and Sasuke cried in unison.

The crazy old man took a swing with his axe, but suddenly cried out in pain, dropping his axe, cursing and swearing about his bad back.

"Yeh win this time, but tomorrow I'll be back, yeh pesky vermin...tomorrow!" The crazy old man rasped. With his injured back, he hobbled away, wheezing and muttering.

"That was way too close for comfort!" Sakura finally said after she let out her breath that she had been holding.

"We're lucky he had a bad back like we do right now." Sasuke said, sighing in relief.

"We're going to die tomorrow, aren't we?" Naruto whimpered. He then began to sob.

"No we won't. We'll kill him first." Sasuke assured them.

"But isn't it kind of...unjust or unfair or something like that to kill an old man?" Sakura asked.

"Not if he's trying to kill us. Now shut up so I can get some sleep already." Sasuke growled as he lay back down in his sleeping bag.

So with that, Sakura and Naruto fell asleep like logs, glad that they could give their backs a rest as Sasuke lay there, trying to fall asleep, his foot throbbing throughout the night.

The next morning, Naruto awoke, his back feeling good as new. Nobody else was awake though, so he left the tent. He looked around for a moment and with nothing else better to do, he walked out of the campsite. He walked down the gravely road for a few moments before he heard something rustle in the bushes near him.

Naruto stopped, turned his head and peered at the bushes and heard more rustling. Naruto jumped back in fear, thinking it could be a bear, or worse; the crazy old axe-wielding man with his crazy old dog.

Then it darted from the bushes. It was large and green and it knocked Naruto right off his feet. Naruto cried as he hit the ground hard. He started flailing about. "Please don't hurt me!"

"Naruto? Is that you? What are you doing here?" The thing from the bushes said as it stopped and looked down at Naruto. Naruto looked up to see...

"Lee? What are you-"

"It is you, Naruto! Your team came camping too? My team and Gai-sensei just arrived early this morning! With you and your team here, this is going to be great!" Lee cheered, pumping his fists into the air. Naruto stared for a moment.

"Am I dreaming?" Naruto mumbled as he stood up, brushing the dirt off his bottom. "There's more human life here after all!"

"Tonight we should have a campfire together, and sometime today or tomorrow, we should do-"

"Listen, Lee. I could listen to you all day, but I gotta get back to Sasuke and Sakura. They're sleeping in way too late right now and things are getting boring without them." Naruto cut in.

"They are? At this hour in the day? It's practically noon! Never fear, Naruto! I will help you awaken them!" Lee cheered, throwing his arms into the air.

"Thanks, I guess. I suppose I might need help waking up the two of them since the sleep like logs. Just don't do anything too crazy. Follow me!"

The two ran back to Naruto's campsite and were just about to enter the tent when Naruto stopped.

"Hey Lee! I think I have a great idea!" Naruto said, pointing to the picnic table where the equipment box lay.

_To be continued..._

Review and you shall see what dreadful idea Naruto has...


	22. The brilliant wake up plan

Got quite a few reviews again! Thanks a lot guys. Keep it up!

My spell check program is broken on my computer, so there might be a couple spelling, spacing, or grammatical errors in this chapter. I did my best to read over this chapter carefully many times though, so it should be hopefully be free of errors.

_Disclaimer: I don't own Barney the Dinosaur. _

_Wait...that's not right. What I meant to say is that I don't own Naruto. _

A few moments later, Lee and Naruto stepped into the tent holding large spoons, pots, and pans. Sakura and Sasuke were still sleeping soundly.

"Oh Sakura...my sweet cherry blossom! How beautiful and peaceful you look when you sleep!" Lee sighed dramatically.

"Lee! Don't forget our real mission!" Naruto reminded him. "It's noon and they can't sleep in any later!"

"Right!" Lee nodded, saluting.

"Alright, let's do this." Naruto said, nodding to Lee. They both started banging the pots and pans and shouted out.

"Good morning Sakura-chan and Sasuke"

"Rise and shine, my sweet cherry blossom!"

"Wakey Wakey, sleepyheads!"

"The early bird catches the worm!"

"But it's not even early anymore, Lee! It's practically the afternoon, so they can't be early birds!"

"Oh yeah, you're right! Well, all the better for us to be waking them up then!"

The banging, clanging, and shouting obviously woke up Sasuke and Sakura, immediately putting them in a foul mood.

"What the hell are you doing?" Sakura screamed as she threw a punch at Naruto.

Sasuke rose from his sleeping bag as well, taking one of Lee's frying pans and smacking him across the head with it.

Naruto and Lee lay on the floor of the tent for a moment, rubbing their throbbing heads.

"Lee? What the hell are you doing here?" Sasuke asked in mild surprise and annoyance.

"I'm camping here with my team too! Isn't it going to be great? Our two teams can bond and face the threats and challenges of the wilderness together!" Lee cried passionately.

"Whoopee." Sasuke sarcastically cheered.

"Why did you have to wake us up like that?" Sakura cried angrily.

"Because you guys were sleeping in way too late!" Naruto replied.

"Well you didn't have to wake us up with all that pot banging and shouting!"

"But Sakura-chan, I'm so hungry! Can you make some breakfast now?" Naruto whined, stomach growling very loudly.

Sakura sighed, rubbing her sleepy eyes. "Well, now that I'm awake, I suppose I better make breakfast."

"Hurry it up!" Naruto added.

"I'm on it, don't push me! I haven't eaten for a while either." Sakura said as she left the tent, Naruto following at her heels. Sakura looked in the food box and tossed Naruto some berries. He caught them with a disappointed look on his face.

"What kind of breakfast is this?" Naruto cried in disappointment.

"If you don't like it, then make your own breakfast you lazy idiot!" Sakura shouted angrily at Naruto. Grouchy by now, Sakura threw a dead fish at Naruto's face. Naruto stood there in part shock, part confusion, and part disappointment as the fish slid down his face and dropped onto the ground.

"But I'm sick of eating just fish!" Naruto whined.

"Well too bad!" Sakura replied in a raised tone of voice.

Naruto's stomach growled loudly, demanding to be fed.

"...How do I cook it?"

"Use the gas stove, duh!" Sakura replied as though answering an obvious question. With her patience lost, Sakura stormed off into the tent as Lee came out.

"Oh Sakura! How beautiful you look in the morning, like a blossming-"

"Cram it, Lee! Get out of my sight!" Sakura snapped.

"Ok...I can do this! Believe it!" Naruto said to himself as he rummaged through the equipment box, getting the matches first this time before turning on the stove, remembering what happened last time.

"Hey Naruto, what are you doing?" Lee asked.

"I'm trying to make breakfast. Want to help?"

"You bet I do!" Lee replied with enthusiasm.

Naruto found the matches and gave out a triumphant cheer. "Alright! Now to set up the stove!"

Naruto and Lee got the stove out, and after a 10 frustrating minutes, set the stove up properly. Naruto turned the gas on and struck his match. The match remained unlit. He struck it against the box again, yet still no flame appeared.

"What the hell is with this? C'mon you stupid match! Light up!" Naruto growled, furiously striking the match again and again as the gas kept running.

"Can I try?" Lee asked.

"In a moment. I gotta light this thing myself. It's been pissing me off!" Naruto replied, furiously striking the match, only to break it.

Sasuke emerged from the tent, hobbling on his good foot.

"You better have breakfast ready soon. We haven't eaten properly for 2 days and I'm starving!" Sasuke told Naruto.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm working on it, okay? You're not the only one dying of hunger!" Naruto replied, taking the words from Sakura's mouth earlier.

Naruto took another match and struck it against the box again and again, until it suddenly lit up.

"Alright! I did it-"

Now as the gas had been running all this time, the match therefore blew up in a huge flame once again, into Naruto's face as it finally ignited.

"You idiot!" Sasuke groaned, hands covering his face.

"Woooow! That was cool, Naruto! Nice work!" Lee cheered.

Naruto stood there for a moment, face completely blackened before he fell to the ground, rolling around and screaming ridiculously, "It burns! It buuuuurns!"

"Never fear, Naruto! It's the passion of youth that burns you, and it's a wonderful thing!" Lee cried.

"No it's not! This really hurts!" Naruto shouted.

"I leave you three on your own for a couple of days, and here I find Naruto's face burned off, Sasuke's foot caught in a trap, Sakura missing and replaced by a green-clad boy? Boy, you kids can be quite troublesome."

Naruto and Sasuke looked up to see their sensei, Kakashi, standing with bags of food in his hands, clothes dirty, his hair full of twigs, leaves, and what Naruto thought was a squirrel moving about in there.

Sasuke and Naruto stared at Kakashi in a hungry sort of way for a full moment before anything else was said.

"...Why are you guys looking at me like that?" Kakashi asked, puzzled by the looks on their faces. "It's rather disturbing really."

"FOOD!" Naruto and Sasuke cried.

Starving Naruto and Sasuke tackled Kakashi, taking the bags of food to the picnic table and searching through on what would be best to eat. Lee stared at them, a little frightened by Sasuke and Naruto's rabid hunger.

"Now don't you all go thanking me at once." Kakashi said sarcastically as he stood up and dusted himself off. "And don't eat everything now either!" He added with a more serious tone in his voice.

Sakura stepped out of the tent to see what the commotion was all about.

"Kakashi-sensei, you're back! We were so worried!"

"Well, it's nice to know that somebody here appreciates my return." Kakashi smiled.

"Oh! Is that food you have with you?" Sakura took the last bag in Kakashi's hand and sat down at the picnic table with Naruto and Sasuke to feed herself.

"Why do I bother?" Kakashi sighed. He turned to Lee who was gaping at the eating speed Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. "Nice to see you Lee. Is the rest of your team here as well?"

"You bet they are! You and your team should come by later and we should all do something cool together!" Lee grinned, striking his nice-guy pose.

"Yeah. That would be a good idea I suppose." Kakashi nodded thoughtfully.

"I better get back to my team now. See you later, guys!" Lee cried as he ran back to the campsite. Kakashi was the only one who waved back, as the three genin were too busy stuffing their faces with food to notice or care that Lee had left.

Kakashi sat himself down to have some food. "Didn't you guys feed yourselves while I was gone?" Kakashi asked his hungry students.

"Mno, we bifn't heed moufelfs mush!" Naruto replied with his mouth full, bits of food flying out of his mouth into Kakashi's face. Mild disgust appeared on Kakashi's face as he wiped the bits of food off with a napkin from the equipment box.

"Come again? I didn't quite catch what you said there."

Naruto chewed and swallowed before replying again. "I said that we didn't feed ourselves much."

"Kakashi-sensei, can you get the trap off of Sasuke's foot?" Sakura asked, pointing to the trap on Sasuke's foot.

"Sure I can. How did you get that caught on your foot anyways, Sasuke?" Kakashi asked, mild interest appearing on his face.

"...I don't want to talk about it." Sasuke replied sulkily.

"He was walking through the woods, when the trap jumped up from the leaves and dirt and snapped onto his foot! He never saw it coming! And he shouted out a lot of naughty words too!" Naruto told Kakashi. Again, bits of food flew out of Naruto's mouth and onto Kakashi's face. Kakashi wiped the food off his face again, shifting backwards away from Naruto.

"You dumb ass! You're not supposed to tell him how it happened! He doesn't need to know!" Sasuke said angrily, fists balled up.

"It's alright to be embarrassed, Sasuke. In fact, I fell for that very same simple trap when I was about your age while camping in the woods here. And I wasn't too happy about it myself either." Kakashi assured his angered Uchiha student.

"Really?" Sasuke said in mild surprise.

"You got your foot caught in a trap too?" Sakura asked, surprised.

"You mean you were once stupid too?" Naruto added, also surprised.

Kakashi glared at Naruto for a moment before returning his gaze to Sasuke, who was also glaring at Naruto.

"So I'm taking it that you know how to get this thing off then?" Sasuke asked, eager to get the painful metal trap off his foot as soon as possible.

"Of course I do." Kakashi replied as he reached for the weapon holster on his leg, pulling out a kunai and smiling cheerfully. "We're going to have to amputate your foot off."

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke stared at their sensei for a moment in complete utter shock. Kakashi laughed, "No, I was just kidding. We don't really have to do that."

"Sensei, Sasuke's not responding!" Sakura told Kakashi as she pointed at Sasuke, who was sitting there, rigid, with a wide-eyed stare.

"Hellooooo? Earth to Sasuke!" Naruto called out to his team-mate as he waved his hand in front of the un responding Uchiha. "Can I smack him back to his senses, Kakashi-sensei?"

"No, Naruto." Kakashi sternly replied.

"But why not?" Naruto whined in disappointment.

Kakashi raised his hand and slapped Sasuke across the face, bringing the shocked boy back to his senses. "Because it's my job to do that."

"Don't do that to me!" Sasuke growled as he rubbed his sore cheek.

"Ok, I'm going to take this off- don't give me that look, Sasuke. I'm not going to amputate your foot. Anyways, this might be painful, so bear with me." Kakashi told the still frightened Sasuke.

Kakashi took his kunai and stuck the tip of it between the metal teeth, prying the trap open bit by bit until the kunai was stuck well between the metal teeth. He then used his hands to pry apart the trap, releasing it from Sasuke's foot.

"Now why didn't I think off that?" Sasuke muttered to himself.

"Because you're stupid?" Naruto suggested.

Sasuke picked up a small stone and chucked it at Naruto's head. "I was out of kunai as well, you know!" Sasuke told Naruto, peeved.

"Your foot's free, Sasuke!" Sakura exclaimed, smiling as she jumped about in joy while Kakashi wrapped Sasuke's foot in bandages.

"Be careful that you don't get an infection now." Kakashi warned Sasuke. "Because if you do, you could get sick and possibly die, and we don't want that."

"Really? I wouldn't mind!" Naruto said.

Sakura proceeded to knock Naruto on the head, but Kakashi beat her to it.

"Alright, that's enough of your snide comments Naruto, unless you don't want to come canoeing with us."

"Of course I wanna go!" Naruto cried, rubbing his throbbing head.

"Good. I thought so." Kakashi smiled. "I just have to go talk with Gai first. I'll be back in about ten minutes, so wait here please." Kakashi instructed as he left the campsite to find Gai.

"I hope he makes it quick." Naruto said. "I've been dying to go out canoeing across lake!"

"With Kakashi-sensei, things are never quick." Sasuke sighed, making himself comfortable in one of the fold-up chairs by the campfire pit.

And Sasuke was right, as the ten-minute wait turned into a two-hour wait.

"This is soooo boring." Naruto groaned as he munched on a chocolate bar. By this point after two hours of nothing to do, Naruto had already devoured half of the chocolate bars that Kakashi had bought, Sakura was deep in the process of detangling and styling her hair with a brush, and Sasuke had fallen asleep.

"There's nothing to do…I know! I should draw on Sasuke's face again!" Naruto grinned.

"No, you won't be doing that." Came Kakashi's voice from behind Naruto.

"When did you get here?" The startled Naruto cried, jumping back a few feet.

"Sorry about the long wait guys. It's time for us to finally go canoeing."

"Really?" Sakura said, looking up from brushing her hair and putting down her hand mirror.

"Great!" Naruto cheered. "I call not carrying the canoe!"

"Yes you are! Sasuke's foot is injured, Kakashi's exhausted, and I'm a lady, so you should be doing the physical labour of carrying!" Sakura scolded her hyperactive team-mate.

"Relax guys, I'll carry it. I'm fine." Kakashi said as he broke the argument between the two. "Sasuke, wake up! We're going canoeing now."

"I'm not awake." Sasuke mumbled.

Naruto hopped over to Sasuke and vigorously shook him by the shoulders. "We're finally going canoeing, Sasuke! Isn't that exciting? Now wakey wakey, you sleepy head!"

Sasuke smacked Naruto on the side of the face. "The way you and Lee woke me up earlier today was more than enough. You don't need to use any more annoying methods to rudely wake me up you loser!"

"Do I really want to know what Naruto did this morning?" Kakashi asked Sakura.

"He and Lee supposedly met up this morning and they both had the bright idea of waking Sasuke and I up by storming into the tent while banging pots and pans together." Sakura explained.

Kakashi shook his head. "I really need to give a talk to that kid."

"Hey Kakashi-sensei! If I'm not allowed to smack Sasuke, can you? He's fallen asleep in the chair again!"

_To be continued..._

You know the drill...review!


	23. The chapter that has no name

That's right folks; Team Gai is here! Somebody requested another Konoha team to come, but I thought it was too late into the making of this fanfic to do that. Then I thought about it for a while and figured maybe it'd make the story better. So I altered the story from the last two chapters and the future chapters to fit Team Gai in here and there. I'd like to thank that person who gave me that idea and that push. (I think you know who you are, but I won't shout your name out of respect. Anyhoo, thanks man!) Hope I didn't bore you readers there, now on with the story!

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Believe it!_

After they had managed to wake Sasuke up and drag him out of the chair, Team 7 was ready to finally head down to the lake.

"I'll race you guys down to the lake!" Naruto challenged before he took off towards the lake, Sakura following close behind. Kakashi took the canoe off "Michael" the SUV and started walking behind limping Sasuke.

Naruto suddenly stopped as someone was blocking his path. Sakura stopped as well, giving a loud shriek.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke called out.

"It's the creepy old hobo man!" Sakura cried in fear.

"And his butt-ugly dog!" Naruto added.

"You dare go 'a callin' mah dog ugly? I'll show yeh who's the ugly one after I smash my axe into yer face for losin' mah boat!" The old man spat, clearly angry. "And today's the day for me to kill ya kids since I couldn't do it last night!"

"Now, now. Using violent threats like that never solves anything." Kakashi told the crazy old man as he stepped in front of his students.

The crazy old man looked at Kakashi for a moment, eyes widening and then pointed at him. "Y-you're that grey-haired brat that broke mah first boat some 15 or 20 years ago!"

"Kakashi-sensei, you broke his boat? How?" Naruto asked, gaping at his sensei.

"Ok, stupid of Naruto to let the boat float away, but you _broke_ the boat? That's really stupid!" Sakura cried.

"Yeah! Put a giant hole in it and sunk it, ya did! Yah'll pay for what ya did to mah boat!" The crazy old geezer shouted as he threw his axe at Kakashi. But the ever-so swift jounin quickly flung the canoe, hitting the old man and deflecting the axe into another direction.

Naruto stared wide-eyed for a moment and then grinned, "Well that solves our problem!"

"Ok, that old hobo man was really crazy and scary, but that was overkill, sensei!" Sakura scolded.

"Don't worry. He's just unconscious. He'll wake up within a few hours." Kakashi assured her. "Anyways, let's head to the lake."

Kakashi picked up the canoe and the four shinobi headed to the lake as the old dog barked at them. Sasuke quickly shut the dog up by kicking it with his good foot.

Team 7 arrived at the lake, and found a surprise waiting for them at the shoreline.

"Hey look!" Naruto exclaimed as he pointed, "The old man's boat's back! I bet the wind blew it back in!"

"Not quite Naruto." Kakashi corrected, pointing to beside the boat where Gai stood, soaking wet but flashing a thumbs up, grinning.

"Gai-sensei saved it?" Sakura asked.

"Alright! He's officially on the top of my favourite sensei list!" Naruto cheered. "Well, right after you of course, Kakashi-sensei!"

Team 7 approached the boat. No obvious harm had been done to it while it had been left floating in the lake. Sakura looked at the side of it where black charcoal writing had been slightly smeared, but was still readable. "..."The Naruto Boat"...you named a boat after yourself?"

"Yeah!" Naruto grinned with pride, "Isn't it awesome?"

"No, it's stupid." Sasuke spat in his ever-fowl mood.

Naruto crossed his arms and stuck his tongue out at Sasuke.

"Kakashi, my eternal rival!" Gai grinned as he flashed a smile. "Great to see that you and your team arrived! Are your and your team ready to go?"

"We're all set." Kakashi nodded. "Good work on getting the boat back, Gai. Is your team coming down soon?"

"You bet there are! And they're going to eat your dust! And speak of the devil, here they come!"

Lee, Neji, and Tenten came down from the path. Lee was looking very excited, Tenten was looking a little unsure, and Neji was looking...well, like Neji.

"Hold on, what's going on here?" Sasuke demanded, "Is this another one of your crazy training exercises?"

"I suppose it could be called something along the lines of that." Kakashi replied.

"Not more training!" Sakura groaned. "Can't we just have fun and relax here?"

"Don't worry. This will benefit your training and you'll have fun. You can relax all you want afterwards." Kakashi told her.

Naruto jumped up and down in excitement. "It'll be fun training? What kind of training is it?"

"You three will be racing against Gai's team by going across the lake in boats. Its main purpose is for teamwork building, so this is where you will put your teamwork skills to good use. There are obstacles and traps in and around the lake that Gai and myself have set up at random. You will have to try to cross the lake unharmed. The first team that makes it across the lake gets a prize."

"A prize? What is it? Is it ramen?" Naruto asked, hoping the answer would be ramen.

"Just shut up and listen, you loser." Sasuke told Naruto.

"What will you and Gai-sensei be doing?" Sakura asked.

"Gai and I will be refereeing. We'll follow you around the lake, but we can't help you unless you get hurt by any of the obstacles. Gai's already explained everything to his students, so if there are no more questions, you three can now get in the cano-"

"Woah! Hold up there, Kakashi!" Gai cut in. "You and I are in this training race too! We can't let our youthful flames burn out by slacking off from training and just watching our students do all the competition!"

"Gai, we can't do that." Kakashi shook his head. "For one, it's our students that need the teamwork building, not us. And secondly, we are the ones who set up the traps. I know where I put my traps, so I can just easily evade them, and that partially defeats the purpose of this exercise. And on top of that, there's not enough room in the boats for 4 people. Your boat can barely fit 2 people in it."

"I'm sure one of our students won't mind if they have to referee instead of paddle across the lake!" Gai grinned.

"I don't mind." Neji spoke up loudly.

"Neither do I." Sasuke said as well.

"Me neither." Sakura added.

"You see?" Gai grinned, "Also, I didn't see you set your traps up and you didn't see me set my traps up, so neither of us would know what we're heading into! So the purpose of that part of the exercise isn't defeated after all! As for teamwork building, we teachers need to bond with our students more, so everything works out in the end!"

Kakashi couldn't argue with what Gai had just said. Giving up, he sighed, "Alright, if that's the way you really want it."

"Now our students will draw straws to see you will be staying out of the race." Gai announced, handing three straws to Kakashi. Neji, Lee, and Tenten drew their straws. The bottom of Tenten's straw was dipped in red.

"And so Tenten is out! That puts Lee, Neji, and myself in the race!"

"Alright!" Lee cheered, throwing his fist in the air. Neji made a sarcastic "Whoopee." as he lamely raised his fist in the air. Tenten looked a little disappointed that she was out, but said nothing.

Kakashi held the three straws for his team. Sasuke drew the straw with the red bottom out.

"Well this is my lucky day." Sasuke smirked.

"Phew! I'm glad I didn't draw that straw." Naruto sighed in relief. "I wanna race after all!"

"Oh-no! Now I'm separated from Sasuke!" Sakura cried. "That's not fair! I demand a re-draw so Sasuke paddles with me!" Inner Sakura screamed.

Well that's taken care of, so let's get in the canoe." Kakashi announced.

"But why can't we race in the 'Naruto Boat' boat?" Naruto asked.

"Because Gai's team is already using it, and the canoe belongs to me."

"But the 'Naruto Boat' boat is better and way cooler!" Naruto whined.

"I beg to differ." Sakura chuckled. "I think we got the better deal here."

"How come we have to get this piece of crap while Kakashi's team gets the good, sturdy boat?" Neji asked, slightly peeved.

"What are you talking about? We got the good boat!" Lee cried. "It must be an excellent boat, or why would Naruto be so passionately trying to get this boat instead of the one they have now?"

"Because he's an idiot." Neji answered. But Lee was barely listening.

"We will win with this wonderful boat! I am sorry Naruto, but this boat and victory shall be ours today!" Lee cried, eyes burning passionately.

"Fine, whatever. But we're going to rename this boat." Neji said.

"No way!" Naruto shouted. "Don't you dare change the name on the boat, or else! You're giving it back to me after the race is done!"

"Naruto, it's not even your boat." Sakura pointed out.

"Guys, we're wasting time. Let's do this before it gets too dark." Kakashi told the bickering genins.

Neji muttered something under his breath as he, Lee, and Gai pushed the "Naruto Boat" boat into the water and hopped in. "Whatever. We'll win this stupid race with or without a good boat." Neji muttered as he took hold of a paddle. Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi pushed their canoe into the water and hopped into it.

"Now don't be an idiot and try to break the boat, Naruto." Sakura warned her team-mate

"No, I won't. Not like Kakashi-sensei did 15 years ago!" Naruto replied. He burst out into fits of laughter just thinking about it.

"Kakashi-sensei, how did you break that crazy old man's boat?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi sighed, scratching the back of his head. "I don't really want to talk about it."

"Alright Tenten! You and Sasuke can give the signal when you're ready, and we'll meet you across the lake!" Gai announced.

Tenten nodded and raised her arm.

_To be continued..._

Thanks for the reviews, guys. Keep it up! (You can review now, right?)


	24. The race

Almost done this fanfic. Only a couple more chapters to go. Thanks for all your reviews guys and keep them coming!

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Oh-noes!_

Tenten raised her arm in the air. "On your marks, get-"

"GO!" Sasuke shouted.

At the command, the two teams began to furiously paddle away.

"No wait! Stop!" Tenten cried, but no one heard her, or they possibly just didn't care. "Sasuke, I wasn't finished! Why did you do that?"

"It's fun to screw around with things like this, that's why." Sasuke smirked as he began to head around the lake.

Vexed, Tenten began to follow after him.

Naruto paddled furiously for a moment before he yet out a yelp of pain, "My arm hurts!"

"You idiot! You're not supposed to paddle that fast at the start of the race!" Sakura scolded.

"But we gotta beat the other team! With Lee and Gai, they're probably really fast!" Naruto told Sakura, eager to get moving forward again.

"Alright, team! We'll have to give it everything we've got! With Kakashi on their side, it's gonna be hard to beat them!" Gai told his team, excited at the challenge.

"How our we doing?" Lee asked as he paddled with great speed.

"Actually, we're beating them." Neji said, as he looked over his shoulder in mild surprise.

Surely enough, the canoe was falling farther behind Team Gai with each stroke they took.

"I don't know what's going on back there, but this is awesome!" Lee grinned. "We're winning against a jounin genius of natural talent! Hard work does prevail after all!"

Back where Team Kakashi was, Kakashi had stopped paddling altogether and pulled his book out to read.

"What are you doing?" Sakura cried. "Naruto and I can't paddle alone!"

"Yeah! Help us out here, sensei! We can't do all the work by ourselves!"

"I'm just taking a quick break. It won't hurt to let Gai get ahead for a moment so he feels like he's winning." Kakashi told them. "Carry on guys. You're doing great!"

"We need help, dammit!" Sakura shouted angrily. "If you weren't my superior, I'd smash this paddle on your head!"

"But you won't." Kakashi warned. "Don't worry, Sakura. I'll paddle again after I finish reading this chapter."

Angry, but determined, Sakura and Naruto paddled furiously to catch up with team Gai. But they just seemed to be falling farther behind.

"Look at them! They're just going in circles!" Lee cried. "I thought they were better than that!"

Neji turned to look around again. "You're right. They are idiots after all! At least we can win this race without a problem now."

But Neji spoke too soon, for as they paddled on vigorously for a few moments, an explosion from the water almost dumped their boat over.

"What the hell?"

"I bet Kakashi set these up! That sneaky devil...that's why he's hanging back there so we can set off all of the explosions for him." Gai growled. "Nice move, Kakashi! But you haven't won yet!" Gai shouted back at his rival.

Sakura saw the explosions ahead. "What's with the explosions ahead?"

"Looks like Gai's team hit some of the obstacles I explained about before. I tied some explosive tags to some floating and submerged logs that explode when a boat bumps into them. It won't be enough to kill or seriously injure them, so you don't have to worry."

"So that's why you stopped paddling. That was actually really good thinking." Sakura said thoughtfully. "Maybe I am on the better team after all!"

"Actually, I just wanted to read this chapter of my book." Kakashi corrected her.

Sakura glared at him, angrily shaking for a moment.

"Just help us paddle already! We're sick of paddling around in circles!" Naruto shouted.

"Alright, alright. I'll start paddling."

More explosions sounded off ahead as Team Gai frantically tried to paddle their way out of the explosions as quickly as possible.

"I can't believe that we haven't been hit by one of the explosions yet!" Neji gasped, paddling hard.

"We're going die! We gotta abandon ship!" Lee cried, dropping his paddle in the boat and getting ready to jump out.

"No! Stay in the boat, Lee! If we bail out of the boat, we lose the race! And we cannot lose to Kakashi!" Gai cried, eyes burning in determination.

"Yes, sir!" Lee saluted, picking up his paddle once more.

"But losing to Kakashi is better than dying by explosives from a stupid training exercise!" Neji shouted. "I think Lee's idea of ditching the race was a good one."

"No! Gai sensei is right! We must not lose!" Lee cried passionately, explosions setting off in the background behind him.

Neji sighed, "Why did I have to get stuck with the idiotic, overly-passionate team?"

Sasuke and Tenten had momentarily stopped walking around the lake to watch the explosives set off.

"Wow. Your team really sucks at this." Sasuke commented.

"S-shut up!" Tenten stammered angrily. "At least my team's closer to the other end of the lake than your team!"

"Yeah, and your team's also closer to being blown up." Sasuke smirked.

The explosions suddenly died down.

"I think it's over. We can paddle on now and win!" Gai cheered.

Neji and Lee gave a sigh of relief and started paddling again.

Lee glanced behind him and saw Team seven's boat quickly approaching.

"They're coming towards us fast!"

"Oh, of course! They speed up _after_ the explosions. Just our damn luck." Neji groaned.

"Damn, they're fast." Gai growled. "But we'll beat them for sure! We've got the power of youth on our side!"

Team seven's boat passed them as Kakashi smiled and waved. "You guys should really get a move-on, you know."

"You're the ones who are gonna eat our dust! Believe it!" Naruto grinned.

Gai growled angrily, balling his fists and stood up in the boat. "Kakashi, your hip and cool attitude shall not get me down this time! My team and I will win this race and prove to you which team is the best one in Konoha!"

Lee also stood up. "Don't be so sure of yourself, Naruto! I will prove to you that the Handsome Green Beast of Konoha will win this race and Sakura's heart!"

"Don't stand up in the boat, you idiots! You're going to tip us over!" Neji shouted.

The boat rocked violently for a moment, but it luckily didn't tip. The two green-clad ninja quickly sat back down.

"You know, we're never going to catch up to them in this piece of crap that you guys call a boat." Neji said. "Anyone who uses this boat in a race is destined to fail."

"Don't say that! We can beat them and the cruel destiny of losing if we work hard enough!" Lee cried in determination. "Hard work always prevails in the end!"

"Yeah right. We'll need a miracle to beat them at this point."

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion, taking Team Gai's attention for a moment. They stared in shock and awe as they saw Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, and pieces of their canoe blow up into the air and fall back down into the water.

"Well, there's our miracle." Neji finally said. "Let's go win this stupid race now."

"Onward, team!" Gai cheered.

Tenten and Sasuke had stopped walking again to observe the race.

"What was that you said about my team being closer to being blown up?" Tenten grinned

Sasuke merely scowled and walked towards the end of the lake.

Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi grabbed onto pieces of their blown-up canoe.

"You said that there weren't any explosions left!" Sakura cried angrily.

"Whoops, my bad." Kakashi chuckled apologetically. "I just remembered that Gai probably planted a large explosion or two in this lake. We'll just swim back to the other side and hope that we don't fall for anymore of Gai's traps.

Lee pointed at them triumphantly as they approached paddling by in their boat.

"Ha! We have beaten you! Konoha's Handsome Green Beast has won!" Lee cried triumphantly.

"Hmph!" Naruto just pouted and looked away. "Who said the race was over?"

"Now that you have seen the excellence of my victory, will you do me the honour of going on a date with me Sakura-chan?" Lee grinned, flashing his teeth.

"Get lost, fuzzy brows!" Sakura screamed, throwing a piece of the canoe at Lee's head.

"Looks like this win goes to me!" Gai flashed his teeth, "Anything you want to say, Kakashi?"

"Is there anything I want to say? Hmmm..." Kakashi pondered as he hung onto the driftwood, looking like a wet dog. "...Hope you don't fall for the flying kunai and mustard gas trap that I set up somewhere ahead?"

Lee gawked for a moment. "M-mustard g-gas?"

"For a simple training exercise, that's a bit too brutal." Neji frowned. He glanced down for a moment, and saw something horrifying. "Our boat's leaking, and we're only halfway across the lake!"

Gai and Lee looked down and surely enough, saw water leaking in the boat. Lee looked as though he was going to panic, but Gai grinned.

"Ha! It doesn't matter! At least we still got a boat! Team Kakashi's so-called stable canoe got blasted to smithereens!" Gai said enthusiastically. "Yeah! Blown to smithereens! Kaboom!" Lee shouted as he danced around in the boat.

"Stop rocking the boat, you idiot!" Neji shouted.

"Anyways, see you guys later!" Gai grinned as he and his team began to paddle away.

"So now what?" Sakura asked testily.

"We follow them and hope we don't get caught in any traps." Kakashi replied as he began to dog paddle after the boat.

Paddling the boat was becoming harder for Team Gai, as the boat was filling up with water quickly, reaching near their knees.

"The boat's getting so hard to paddle all of a sudden!" Lee groaned.

"And Kakashi's team seem to be out-swimming us, which is quite sad really." Neji added. "But at least we're very close to shore now."

"They're out-swimming us? This is bad! And our boat's half submerged under the water!" Lee exclaimed. "I say we ditch the boat and out-swim them! Then it'll be a real race!"

"I suppose you're right." Gai sighed. "Well, at least we kept our boat longer than they did."

They were just about to abandon ship when a net descended from a nearby tree they were passing under. The net fell around the boat, pulling it up along with Lee, Neji, and Gai, and the "Naruto Boat" boat all hung from the tree.

"Hey! What the hell?" Neji cried.

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about sinking anymore!" Lee said, trying to look at the bright side.

Soaking wet, Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi climbed on shore where Sasuke and Tenten were waiting. Sakura used her hands to try to wring the water out of her hair while Naruto took off his jacket, shaking the water out vigorously and Kakashi shook himself like a dog, both splashing water all over Sakura, getting her wet again.

"...Are you two done yet?" Sakura growled, dripping wet again.

"Oh, yes I am. Sorry about that." Kakashi replied, smiling sheepishly.

"I'm not! You might want to move away now." Naruto said, ready to shake the water out of his hair.

"Hey! Let us down from here!" Lee shouted.

Kakashi took a kunai and threw it at the net, cutting Lee, Neji, Gai, and the boat free, sending them tumbling into the water. The three clambered ashore, dragging the "Naruto Boat" boat behind them.

"So, did we win?" Lee asked in hope.

"Well technically, Naruto, Sakura, and I were the first to reach the shore." Kakashi answered.

"Yeah, but your boat blew up first, so doesn't that get you disqualified?" Neji reminded Kakashi.

"Whatever. The prize is just chocolate, so we'll say that you guys won." Kakashi shrugged, not caring either way.

" 'Just chocolate' you said? That's awesome!" Naruto exclaimed. "Now I really wish that we won!"

"What does it matter to you, Naruto? You ate a whole bunch of chocolate bars before the race today." Sakura pointed out.

"That brings our score up to 51-52 for me, Kakashi!" Gai said, striking a pose. "Good race!"

"Well, hopefully all those explosions went off, otherwise there's going to be some very unhappy and possibly injured swimmers in the future." Kakashi said.

"Didn't you think of that _before_ you set them up in the lake?" Sasuke scoffed.

"It's not like there's going to be many who come to a place named "Camp Death" though, so there probably won't be any swimmers to swim into them." Tenten pointed out.

"Yeah, you're right." Kakashi nodded. "The park ranger even left the other day and said that he doesn't care what happens to this place anymore since nobody comes around here."

"Were you actually serious about the mustard gas trap sensei?" Naruto asked.

"No. I was just screwing with your heads."

"Can we head back to the campsite now? I'm really tired and hungry!" Sakura moaned.

"Sure, good idea." Kakashi nodded. "We better bring that boat back and repair it so we can give it back to the crazy old man. Then he'll probably leave us alone."

"Finally! The best idea anyone's come up with yet. He was really starting to scare me." Sakura sighed in relief.

"Kakashi! How would you and your team like to come over for a marshmallow roast at our campsite after dinner?" Gai offered. "Then we shall sing songs and express our youth and-"

"We'll see Gai. We're all pretty tired right now, so we might go to bed early tonight." Kakashi replied.

"What are you talking about? I'm not tired at all!" Naruto objected.

"Well you can go over then, Naruto. The rest of us will see what we want to do after dinner."

Team 7 commenced their walk around the lake to get back to their campsite, dragging "the Naruto Boat" boat behind them.

_To be continued..._

Review...please...thank you! Also, would you guys be able to tell me whether you think this fanfic seems like a humor/general or a humor/parody genre or a different genre combination I didn't list? I can't decide myself. Please tell me.


	25. The tacos

Back at the campsite, Sakura was cooking the tacos while Naruto started up the campfire, roasting smores before dinner. (The shame!) Sasuke just sat at the picnic table, most likely thinking about revenge on Itachi, and Kakashi was fixing the "Naruto Boat" boat up.

"You know Naruto, it should be you fixing that boat, not Kakashi-sensei." Sakura scolded.

"Yeah, but it is sensei's fault that he put up the training exercise, which in the end caused the boat to get a hole in it from the explosions." Naruto replied.

"Hey Naruto, could you go get Team Gai's prizes from my tent?" Kakashi requested. "They should be four prizes in the side pouch of my bag, but you can split one of the prizes between Sasuke and Sakura since Team Gai only need three prizes now."

Naruto dropped his marshmallow stick and dashed towards Kakashi's tent, crawling inside. A moment passed before a scream was heard.

"A dead mouse? What kind of prize is that!" Naruto shouted out.

"What? That's not supposed to be there...look in the bag some more."

A few seconds later, a squeal of glee was heard and Naruto came running out, grinning from ear to ear.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked. "Whatever it is, I get some too."

"It's chocolate!" Naruto gleamed, holding up the treasured prizes, simple chocolate bars. Sasuke just stared in disappointment.

"...That's it? Well that was a stupid prize to get worked up over."

"Aren't you going to have some?" Naruto asked.

"I don't like chocolate." Sasuke grumbled.

Naruto stared at Sasuke like he was crazy for a moment before shrugging.

"Ah well. More for me then!"

Kakashi looked at Sasuke for a moment as he took three of the chocolate bars from Naruto. "I don't understand how someone your age couldn't like chocolate, Sasuke."

"I just don't like chocolate bars. Plus it's been lying next to an old, diseased dead mouse, another reason why not to have it. Who knows what's crawling inside that chocolate now."

Naruto was about to take a bite from it, forgetting that it had indeed been lying next to an old dead rodent. Naruto dropped the chocolate bar on the ground, frowning.

"Thanks for ruining my fun!"

"What? I never said that you couldn't eat it!" Sasuke shot back. "I don't care if you get poisoned."

"Kakashi-sensei! Sasuke's making me feel unloved again!"

"Maybe I shouldn't give these to Gai and his team after all." Kakashi grimaced as he looked at the three chocolate bars.

"Dinner's ready!" Sakura called out.

At hearing that glorious phrase, the 3 male shinobi immediately sat down at the table and began dressing their tacos. Sakura muttered something about boys being so impatient to eat as she sat down with them

"Alright, tacos! One of the best meals out there aside from ramen!" Naruto cheered. "Hey! Wouldn't it be awesome if there was taco-flavoured ramen, or ramen-stuffed tacos?"

Silence hung around the picnic table for a moment before Kakashi spoke,

"That's just gross."

"And that's coming from someone who puts _wasabi_on their tacos, which was a pain in the ass to get at the grocery store by the way, so you better be thankful!" Sasuke glared accusingly at Kakashi who was indeed dressing his taco with wasabi.

"What? Everybody's got to have a little fun with their food, right?" Kakashi defended.

"Fun with their food...hey! I've got a great idea!" Naruto ran over to the campfire, grabbing his marshmallow stick and ran back to the picnic table. He took his half-stuffed taco and put two roasted marshmallows and hunks of chocolate in it.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura cried.

"What does it look like? I'm making my taco, of course!"

"And I thought the wasabi was crazy." Sasuke muttered to himself.

"That's not healthy eating, Naruto!" Sakura said in a matter-of fact tone.

Naruto frowned. "But I don't like beans in my tacos! Beef and onions are ok, but I don't like beans! They give me bad gas actually."

"Thank you for sharing that piece of information with us." Sasuke said in sarcasm.

"Kakashi-sensei, stop him!" Sakura cried. "Show Naruto how to eat properly!"

"Let him be. This is a vacation. We probably won't get an opportunity like this ever again in our lives. As gross as the food is that he's stuffing in his taco, let's just let him have his fun."

Naruto grinned happily before stuffing his taco into his mouth, crumbs dropping out.

"It's still gross though." Sakura shuddered as Naruto devoured his taco within seconds and took another.

Sasuke glanced over at Naruto, who was by then having his third taco. Sasuke took his third taco, quickly dressing it and stuffing it into his mouth. Naruto glared at Sasuke, taking a fourth taco. Sasuke took a fourth and a fifth. Once again, the two were trying to out-do each other by stuffing their faces. And Kakashi and Sakura were still making only their first tacos.

"Just wonderful." Kakashi sighed. "We're going to have two sick boys puking all night long."

"Why can't they just sit down and eat more slowly to enjoy their meal, like we are?" Sakura frowned as she glanced at Kakashi to see that his taco was gone. Sakura pointed at Kakashi's plate, "Where did your taco go?"

"I ate it."

Sakura stared in shock. "What? But it was there literally 5 seconds ago! How did you-"

"I just naturally eat really fast, that's all." Kakashi replied, smiling.

"Boys!" Sakura huffed, then started to grumble, "Acting like such pigs, trying to out-eat each other and then sensei wolfing down his food like it's his last meal..."

"Oh-no, Sakura. If this was my last meal, I would savour it and eat very slowly." Kakashi smiled.

"Whatever!" The miffed kunoichi huffed. "You weren't supposed to hear me grumbling!"

Naruto raised his firsts into the air as he cheered, "Ha! I win! I ate eight tacos and you only ate seven!"

"That's because you happened to grab the last taco before me, you pig!" Sasuke shot back.

"Survival of the fastest, Sasuke!" Naruto stuck his tongue out at the grouchy Uchiha.

"Did you ever consider on saving more food for Sakura and I? We only got one taco each." Kakashi cut in.

Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head, grinning apologetically. "Whoops! Sorry about that, guys."

Sakura brought her fist upon Naruto's head. "Stop thinking about your own ego and stomach for once and start thinking of others!"

"Yeah, you loser." Sasuke added.

"Speak for yourself, Sasuke. You should be getting the same scolding from Sakura, but seeing as she wouldn't do such a thing to you, I'll do it to you for her instead." Kakashi lectured. "You should also start thinking about others and-"

"Screw off!" Sasuke snapped.

"Hey! Can we go to Gai's campsite for campfire now?" Naruto asked.

"Let's return the boat to the old man first so we don't have to worry about him trying to do anything to us in the middle of the night." Kakashi replied.

"I like that idea." Sakura nodded.

Kakashi picked up the boat, Naruto and Sakura following close behind. (And Sasuke, staying behind.) Naruto glanced up at the boat for a second, noticing something wrong.

"Kakashi-sensei! How could you?" Naruto gasped.

"What?"

"You washed the name off the boat!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Well, duh! The crazy old man wouldn't want his boat back with your name on it!"

"Think Naruto, would you like to have your boat named "the Crazy Old Man boat"?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto thought for a moment. "Well...not really."

"Exactly."

"But that's a stupid name! Who'd want their boat named after a crazy old hobo? At least with my name, it sounds better and it's the name of the future Hokage!"

"That's not the point, Naruto." Kakashi told the young boy.

"Yes it is!"

"Naruto, nobody cares!" Sakura half shouted. "Nobody wants a boat named after you!"

"Well, here's his campsite." Kakashi announced.

Sakura stared at the campsite. "I'm surprised that he hasn't been kicked out of here by the park ranger yet."

"He's probably too scared to try." Naruto replied.

"There's no park ranger to even try to kick him out now." Kakashi said.

The old man suddenly popped out of his ragged old tent, holding an axe in his hand with his old mutt of a dog following him.

"He's gonna kill us!" Naruto cried. "I'll fight any ninja, but not this creepy psycho geezer!"

Naruto began to run, but Sakura and Kakashi grabbed him by the collar of his jacket to prevent him from running any further.

"Before you run away, at least apologize to the old man." Kakashi said.

"Alright, fine!" Naruto scowled and then turned to face the crazy old man. "I'm sorry I broke your boat. You happy now?"

Kakashi put the boat down in front of the old man. "I fixed it and cleaned it up to make up for my student losing it and me wrecking your other boat some 15 years ago. Hope it's to your liking"

The crazy old man inspected it for a moment before finally spoke, showing his rotten half-fallen out teeth, making Sakura and Naruto cringe.

"That clean up job ain't half bad. Thanks, kid!" The crazy old man replied.

"...Kid?" Kakashi said in confusion.

"So you're not going to kill us now?" Naruto asked.

Sakura quickly covered Naruto's mouth with her hand before he could do any more damage.

The old man chuckled at Naruto's question before he replied, "Nope, don't see any reason to pester yeh anymore. Just don't mess around with mah stuff again, ya got that?"

"Don't worry. I'll keep them out of trouble." Kakashi assured the old man.

"Ya go and do that, kid. I'll see ya around. Now scram before I sick my dog on y'all!"

"But I'm not a kid anymore." Kakashi corrected at him.

The crazy old man looked at him for a moment.

"Yer right! Boy, yah've sure grown! And ya still look as old as ever!"

"He isn't making any sense!" Naruto whispered to his sensei. "What the hell is he talking about?"

"I don't really know. He's crazy after all. Nobody's supposed to really understand him" Kakashi replied.

"Can we just go before he or his dog decide to suddenly attack us?" Sakura pleaded.

The three shinobi left the site quickly, returning to their campground as darkness begun to fall and mosquitoes came out. Sakura swung her hands about, trying to keep them off of her.

Sasuke glanced up to see his team-mates had returned. "So how did it go?"

"Great, just great." Naruto replied, scowling. "Thanks for coming along with us, Sasuke!"

"Sure, no problem."

"It's called sarcasm, you dumb ass!"

"I know. I just fired it back at you, that's all," Sasuke smirked. "You dumb ass."

Naruto angrily shouted at Sasuke as Sakura screamed with frustration, the mosquitoes continuously biting her.

"Do you want some bug spray?" Kakashi offered as he approached her. Unfortunately, Sakura turned her anger on Kakashi.

"Leave me alone!" She shouted in frustration. "I've had it with being dirty and being eaten alive by mosquitoes and being the only girl and getting attacked by bears and eating nothing but fish, rodents, and berries and using dirty outhouses and getting blown-up by submerged bombs and getting wet and sharing a tent, and most of all, I've had it with being surrounded by three males that stink!"

Kakashi quickly backed away as Naruto and Sasuke stared at Sakura in mild surprise and fear at her random outburst.

"What's eating her?" Naruto muttered to Sasuke.

"…I stink?" Kakashi asked, mildly surprised as he pointed to himself.

"You're such a whiner, Sakura." Sasuke scoffed.

Sakura's eyes began to tear up.

"Is there anything we can do? Anything you want at the moment?" Kakashi asked.

"I want a shower!" Tears poured out as Sakura cried loudly and ran off into the tent. Naruto followed after her.

"Hey Sakura! I know what'll cheer you up! Why don't we go to the lake? You can wash up there! It'll be better than a shower!"

"Go away, Naruto!" Sakura angrily shouted. "I'm not going to wash myself in something where fish have been swimming and animals have been peeing in!"

"Naruto, it's safer if you just leave her alone." Kakashi advised the young boy.

"Why is she getting so upset over such small things?" Naruto asked.

"She's just being a girl." Sasuke replied.

"Oh, ok. Wait...animals pee in the lake?"

_To be continued..._

Submit your reviews if you wish to see the final chapter. That's right, you heard me; the final chapter is coming!


	26. The ghost story

Sorry this chapter took forever to get up, but I had a lot of homework to finish, so I didn't have much time. **_But_** the main reason I didn't get it up sooner is because the Microsoft Word program on my computer was being a bitch and decided that chapter 26 was too long and didn't want save it, so it deleted all my hard work for chapter 26. I was very pissed off at the program, at the computer, and at myself. (The amount of times I banged by head on the keyboard in frustration. Oww... XD) Anyhoo, I had to split up the last chapter into smaller parts, so this isn't the last chapter any longer. (I lied. Whoops. But please don't kill me. Blame it on technology!)

_Disclaimer: ...Well dang! I forgot what I was goin' to say!_

Naruto was the only one who went to the campfire at Gai's campsite that evening. It was filled with many marshmallows, lame ghost stories from Tenten, sarcastic comments from Neji, and horrible off-key singing from Gai and Lee that made Naruto came back to his campsite with his hearing degraded down a level.

As he returned to the campsite, Kakashi and Sasuke were sitting on the chairs and log by the fire.

"How did Gai's campfire go?" Kakashi asked.

"What? I can't hear you! My hearing's gone down from Gai's and Lee's horrible singing!" Naruto shouted back.

"It went badly." Sasuke concluded.

"I see. That's too bad." Kakashi nodded and then spoke up, "We were just about to read some ghost stories. Would you like to join us?"

"His idea, not mine." Sasuke said as he pointed at Kakashi, making it clear that Sasuke was not enthused with silly activities like ghost stories.

"Ghost stories? Of course I wanna join in! As long as they're better than Tenten's lame ghost stories!"

Naruto sat himself down on the log next to Sasuke and opened a new bag of marshmallows, popping some in his mouth.

Kakashi opened the book (No, not Icha Icha/Make Out Paradise, the ghost stories book you fools.) and began to read, "Once upon a time-"

"What kind of ghost story starts with _'once upon a time'_? This sounds more like a lame fairytale than a ghost story to me." Sasuke scoffed.

Naruto nodded in agreement, "Yeah! What the hell kind of a ghost story is this?"

"A very odd one, obviously." Kakashi replied. "Now may I continue?"

Both the boys nodded, feeling a little bad for interrupting.

Kakashi began to read again, "Once upon a time," Naruto couldn't help but snigger. "a family of four decided that they would go on a canoe trip and camp out together in the wilderness, much like the wilderness that we are staying in now. The parents were looking forward to spending quality time with the family in the outdoors and the children were very excited and couldn't wait to go."

Naruto snickered at the cheesiness of the story and Sasuke muttered under his breath, "Fairytale...", but both listened to the moderately boring story for a while. Soon the plot line began to rise as the family had encountered their bears in their campsite. The gory details began to rise and became more graphic, when suddenly...

"Naruto, let go of me, you idiot!"

Sasuke had found and tried to shake off Naruto, who was clinging to Sasuke in fear as the story became more graphic.

"I didn't mean to! The story just got a little scary, that's all. I didn't mean to cling onto you, so don't get any ideas!"

"Then make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Fine! I will!"

With that said, Naruto rose from the log and sat in one of the chairs next to Kakashi. When they settled down, Kakashi began to read again.

"With its large teeth, the first bear tore at the father's scalp, exposing his bloody skull as the second bear was dragging the mother around by her half-detached arm. The third bear ripped at the daughter's stomach with its claws, tearing the young girl's innards out-"

Kakashi then found Naruto clinging to his arm, trembling.

Sasuke had a rather disgruntled look on his face as he spoke, "This is anything but a fairytale that I thought it was going to be. This is a story about some stupid, bloody, and overly graphic bear mauling. It's not even a ghost story! Why are we reading such a pointless violent story like that?"

"Well, you guys said that you didn't want a lame fairytale story." Kakashi answered.

"That story really had us tricked there when it started with 'once upon a time' and described happy, bright, cheery scenes." Sasuke grumbled.

"It sure did!" Naruto nodded furiously. "But I thought we supposed to be reading scary yet make-believe ghost stories, not stories where whatever's happening in the story could happen to us!"

Naruto snapped his mouth shut as he just realized what he said. He clung to Kakashi's arm tighter and whimpered, "W-what if that r-really does h-happen to u-us?"

"Naruto, my arm's losing its circulation." Kakashi spoke, hoping Naruto would let go soon.

Naruto let go, trembling with the story fresh in his mind.

"What if bears do attack us in the middle of the night like it did to those campers in the story?"

"Well if that does happen, we're screwed." Sasuke sighed, trembling on the inside with the story still fresh in his mind as well.

"Well, I think it's time for bed now." Kakashi announced, shutting the book. "I probably shouldn't have read that story to you guys right before bed, so you would be better off forgetting all about it. And don't tell Sakura about the story either. I don't' want her getting all strung up over it like you two did.

"I did not get strung up over it!' Sasuke said in a slightly defensive tone.

"You so did!" Naruto laughed. "Is Sasuke-chan afraid of the big scary bears that'll come to get him in the dark?" he added in a gushy baby voice.

Sasuke did his best to ignore Naruto's teasing as he went into the tent, but not before replying, "Not as afraid as you, you big baby."

"Sasuke, you bastard! You're asking for it, insulting me like that!"

"But who made the first insult, Naruto?" Kakashi reminded the boy. "Now off to bed. I don't want to have to carry you to your sleeping bag."

Naruto went into his tent, bidding goodnight to his sensei, and crawled into his sleeping bag. A few hours later, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi were sleeping soundly, but Naruto however, was still awake, unable fall asleep with the ghost story still fresh in his mind. He had to go to the bathroom as well, and in the dead middle of the night of all times. After Sakura's outburst earlier, he didn't want to try to ask her to take him to the washroom. Kakashi had already taken him a few nights ago, so he didn't want to trouble his tired sensei by asking him again. That left Naruto's ever-stoic rival, Sasuke, to ask.

Naruto gulped as he crawled out of his sleeping bag, crawled over to Sasuke, and shook his shoulder. "Sasuke, wake up! Please?"

Naruto continually shook Sasuke until he finally awoke and sat up.

"What is it? I was having a great dream where Sakura finally left me alone as her affections of love suddenly turned towards Kakashi-sensei instead of me..."

Naruto stared at Sasuke in shock and disgust for a moment before Sasuke fully woke up, half aware that he had just blurted out his ridiculous dream.

"...What? What do you want? I was sleeping!" Sasuke snapped irritably.

Naruto shook away Sasuke's dream and quickly remembered why he had bothered the irritated Uchiha in the first place.

"I gotta go to the bathroom!"

Sasuke groaned, "Why didn't you go before bed?"

"Because I didn't have to go back then, but I really have to go now! Can you please be my bathroom-buddy for tonight?"

"No. Go ask Kakashi-sensei. I'm not taking you."

"But he already took me! It wouldn't be fair to bug him again."

"Then go ask Sakura."

"But she'll kill me! Literally!"

"Then go by yourself!"

"But we're not allowed! Kakashi-sensei said so!"

"Who cares what he says! You can go alone and he won't even notice or hardly care."

"B-but..." Naruto stammered.

"But what?" Sasuke asked, clearly quite pissed off now.

Sasuke couldn't see clearly the dark, but Naruto's lip began to quiver and his eyes got watery.

"I'm afraid of going in the dark alone."

Sasuke stared dumbfounded at Naruto for a moment. How the hell was this loud and proud, boastful boy going to become Hokage if he was afraid of going to the washroom alone in the dark?

Sasuke gave a heavy sigh before he stood up, grabbing the flashlight and slipping his sandals on. "Fine, but it's going to be Sakura's turn next time you have to go."

"Yup, I got it!" Naruto chirped, slipping his sandals on and following Sasuke out of the tent, leaving the campsite to go to the outhouse. They walked in silence most of the way, until the silence was broken when Naruto's footsteps began sounding rather funny to Sasuke's ears.

Sasuke turned around to see that Naruto was doing some kind of weird hopping and dancing routine.

"What are you doing, Naruto?"

"I really got to go badly!" Naruto whined. "Are we almost there? Please tell me we're almost there!"

"We're there." Sasuke announced.

"Really?"

"No. I'm just screwing around with you."

Naruto tried to shout out Sasuke's name in anger, but it came out as a moan instead. They walked for another five minutes, Naruto becoming more fidgety and trying to sing a campfire song to keep his mind occupied.

Sasuke sighed, "Naruto, save the campfire songs for the campfire."

"But I need to sing so I can keep my mind off of-Hey! There it is!" Naruto cried in relief as he grabbed the flashlight from Sasuke and ran up towards the outhouse.

Sasuke cried, "Hey! Don't leave me back here in the-" The outhouse door slammed shut. "-dark..." he finished lamely.

Taking a few moments, Sasuke carefully made his way to the dim glow the flashlight made in the outhouse, praying that he wouldn't step into any potholes or walk into a ditch, bear, or skunk. Sasuke whacked his fist on the door. "Hey idiot! Next time wait until I know where I'm going before you run off with the flashlight!"

There was a yelp of surprise and then the outhouse became dark. Then there was a scream of fear. "Sasuke, you bastard! You made me drop the flashlight down the toilet!"

Naruto screamed as he was once again, trapped inside of a dark and smelly outhouse.

Sasuke groaned as Naruto's screaming filled the campgrounds and the surrounding forests and mountains. "Well, he's probably going to wake up all the campers now." But then he remembered that he and team 7 were the only campers in the campgrounds, aside from Gai's team. Nevertheless, the screaming had to stop.

"Naruto, stop screaming!"

Naruto didn't seem to hear Sasuke though, so the screaming continued.

Sasuke's voice obviously couldn't match Naruto's loud screaming one, so he approached the outhouse, kicked down the door and grabbed Naruto's arm.

"Who are you? Oh man, don't kill me!" Naruto pleaded.

"It's me, you loser!" Sasuke snapped.

"Oh, Sasuke! You saved me!"

"Yeah, yeah. Now let's blow this stink house and get back to the tent. If we can get back that is." Sasuke grumbled, pulling Naruto from the outhouse and back onto the dark path.

"Great job, Naruto. Thank you for losing our only source of light in this damn wilderness!"

"Well you startled me when you pounded your fist on that outhouse door, which caused me to drop the flashlight!" Naruto defended himself.

Sasuke sighed, trying to calm himself. "Ok, we've seriously got to stop bickering and somehow try to find our way back without the flashlight."

"When the flashlight burned out a couple nights ago, Kakashi-sensei and I had to feel our way back."

"And how did that go?"

"Well, Kakashi-sensei actually knew what he was doing and where we were going. Aside from falling into a ditch, we did pretty well!"

"Ok then. We'll just find our way back by instinct." Sasuke said, doubting Kakashi's method of feeling their way back to the campsite in the dark.

"How will you do that?" Naruto asked.

"First of all, give me your hand." Sasuke ordered.

A moment of silence hung in the air.

"I'm not trying to imply anything, ok? Just give me your hand so I can get back to the tent and sleep!" Sasuke commanded angrily.

Naruto reluctantly gave Sasuke his hand.

"Ok, I have a general sense of where we're going. I think we keep walking straight for five minutes and turn left, walk for another 2 and then turn right into our campsite."

"That sounds easy enough!" Naruto said, relieved.

Sasuke started inching forward, Naruto closely following behind. This went on for about 5 long minutes before Naruto spoke up, "Can't we go a little faster?"

"Are you crazy? If we do that, we'll over-shoot the route we're supposed to take or fall into a ditch like you and Kakashi-sensei idiotically did the other night!"

"Yeah, you're right." Naruto agreed. "I sure don't want to fall into a ditch again. It hurt!"

"Exactly why I don't want to fall into a ditch. Now let's just keep moving."

Sasuke inched forward faster and then eventually turned left. They walked further and turned right into their campsite and listened for the sounds of humans breathing. Surely enough, they could hear their team-mates' breathing.

"Alright, we made it back alive and unharmed. Now don't bug me again tonight." Sasuke told Naruto.

"Sure thing! Thanks, Sasuke." Naruto replied, yawning.

Exhausted, Sasuke and Naruto both clambered into their tent and fell asleep before they even made it to their sleeping bags.

_To be continued..._

Please review! And don't kill me because I lied about this being the last chapter. Once again, I'm really sorry.


	27. The end

I'm glad you guys understood the mishap with the last chapter (Thank you for not killing me:D) However, some people said they'd only kill me if this fanfic was going to end…(Please don't kill me!) But speaking of the ending...it would be cruel of me not to warn you ahead of time that this is the last chapter. I don't want to end this, but all things must come to an end eventually. (And 27 chapters are enough for a story! Oh man…) Thanks for all your reviews for chapter 26 and throughout this story. This fanfic now has almost at 200 reviews, which is pretty flippin' awesome! Now without further ado, I hope you all enjoy the final chapter!

_Disclaimer: Holy crap, I finally own Naruto! _

_...You knew that was sarcasm, right?_

In the morning when Sakura awoke, she looked around the tent, expecting to find her team-mates sleeping. Their sleeping bags however, were empty. She clambered out of her sleeping bag, figuring that they must have gone out to eat breakfast. When she left the tent however, they weren't there to be seen.

"Good morning, Sakura." Kakashi greeted as he emerged from his tent. "Are Naruto and Sasuke still sleeping?"

"No, they aren't here." Sakura replied, still looking about.

"Really? That's odd."

"They're probably just down at the lake or something."

"Together, and this early in the morning, you think?" Kakashi questioned.

Sakura thought for a moment before she replied, "You're right. That is too weird."

Suddenly, they heard two very loud screams and angry shouting from not too far off.

"I think we've found our boys." Kakashi announced, looking in the direction where the screams came from.

Naruto and Sasuke had been sleeping soundly until they awoke to a loud scream. This scream came from Tenten, who was staring at them in fear and shock.

"W-what are you two doing in my tent?" Tenten cried. "You perverts!"

Naruto screamed as he registered that something was terribly wrong and Tenten, holding a frying pan, swung it at Naruto's head.

"Run you moron!" Sasuke shouted to Naruto.

But the frying pan hit its mark upon Naruto's head and knocked him out. Sasuke cursed under his breath as he quickly picked Naruto up and ran as fast as his legs could carry him, but not before tripping over a stray sleeping bag.

Sasuke finally clambered out of the tent and saw Lee and Neji running towards them.

"We heard Tenten's screaming! What have you done to her?" Lee cried angrily.

"What are you morons doing here?" Neji growled. "Get off of our turf!"

"Your 'turf'? It's a freaking campsite! How can it be _your_ turf?" Sasuke snapped angrily.

Naruto suddenly regained his senses from all of the shouting. "Sasuke, you idiot! You lead us into the wrong campsite!"

"Shut up and run!" Sasuke shot back as he dropped Naruto and ran away from Gai's campsite. Naruto quickly picked himself off of the ground and scampered after Sasuke.

As they arrived back at their own campsite, out of breath, they collapsed on the ground.

"We heard all your screaming. So what's your story?" Kakashi asked as he saw the two boys collapse on the ground.

"Sasuke the "genius" led us into the wrong campsite and tent last night!" Naruto replied, pointing at Sasuke accusingly. "I'm never trusting your so-called "instinct" ever again!" he added angrily at Sasuke.

"You were the one who insisted that we had to leave our tent in the first place!" Sasuke shot back.

"But I had to go to the bathroom! It was your fault that you led us the wrong way!" Naruto defended.

"It was too dark to see, thanks to you dropping the flashlight down the toilet!" Sasuke reminded Naruto.

"That's because you scared me!"

"It's still your fault that we had to find our way back to the campsite in the dark and stumbled into the wrong tent."

"My fault? You said you knew where we were going when we tried to find our way back last night! You were the one who said that we were in our campsite!"

"Well how was I supposed to know that Gai's team was camping there?"

"You dropped our only source of night-time light down the toilet?" Sakura cut in angrily. "How could you!" Sakura grabbed Naruto by the collar of his jacket, shaking the boy violently.

"Wait, stop! It was an accident!" Naruto cried, trying to pry the angered girl's hands off him.

"I think all of this camping is going to our heads." Sasuke groaned as began to realize the anger and tenseness of the group. He turned to Kakashi, "How many more days are we staying here for, sensei?"

"How ever many days it takes us until we can find someone who has gas for Michael." Kakashi replied. "Even if we did have gas, we'd still technically have another day and a half as originally planned."

"How can we still have another day left after all of this?" Sasuke half shouted in frustration.

Sakura trembled before she screamed, "I need a shower now! I'm sick of being dirty and surrounded by smelly males!"

The darkening clouds above suddenly rumbled loudly and rain began to pour down.

"Well, there you go Sakura. Here's your shower!" Kakashi smiled.

Sakura impatiently stamped her foot, "No! Not that kind of shower! Why doesn't anybody understand me?"

"Because your a girl?" Sasuke suggested.

"Because your hair's pink?"

Sasuke stared at Naruto for a moment. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Were you just insulting my hair?" Sakura shouted, her fist ready to slam on Naruto's head.

"I think I might know where we can get some car gas." Sasuke said suddenly. "Gai might have some. We should go ask him."

"A very good idea, Sasuke." Kakashi nodded. "Let's go do that."

"What if they try to clobber me and Sasuke for what happened earlier this morning?" Naruto asked, looking nervous.

"If they try and do anything, I'll stop them." Kakashi replied. "But I doubt they'll try anything. They seem like a pretty forgiving team."

Team 7 left their campsite and walked over to Gai's campsite. Neji and Tenten were sitting at their picnic table, looking quite drenched and miserable. Gai and Lee on the other hand, were looking quite the opposite.

"A little rain is always good for the body! Rain truly makes the youth blossom!" Gai cheered, fist raised into the air as the rain poured down heavily and lightning flashed across the sky. "I can feel the power of youth surging through my body right now!"

"Gai-sensei, you are the coolest!" Lee cheered, also raising his fist into the air as more lightning flashed across the sky.

"Hey Gai. Do you by chance have some car gas on you?" Kakashi asked, breaking the dramatic moment.

"What's this? Chickening out and driving home already, just because of a little rain? You know this will bring you down by a point, Kakashi!" Gai said, teeth shining.

"No, we're not "chickening out" today. We still have one more day to stay here in fact. We've been here for a few days now, so my team and I will need to head back to Konoha tomorrow or the Hokage will be displeased with us for spending too many days off."

"Ah, I see. Of course I have car gas! I shall spare you some, because you are my eternal, yet hip rival who is in great need! So car gas you will have!" Gai cried dramatically, striking his pose. Lee cheered loudly while Neji and Tenten just shook their heads and sighed.

"That's great, Gai. Could we have some now?" Kakashi asked.

"Why of course!" Gai took an empty gas tin and filled it up with some gas from a full tin. "May you use this gas well!" Gai grinned as he handed the tin to Kakashi.

"Well that was easy." Sasuke said.

Thanks Gai, I owe you one." Kakashi smiled.

"That's one point for me now, Kakashi! You must do something equally or more good than I to catch up with me!"

"Whatever, Gai. Thanks again. We'll see you around." Kakashi said as he waved and headed back to the campsite.

"Have fun guys!" Naruto waved back.

Lee cheered back in reply, "Yosh! You bet we will!"

Neji scowled and Tenten sighed and shook her head as the rain began to pour down more heavily than before.

Kakashi poured the gas into Michael as Naruto and Sasuke sat themselves down at the wet picnic table.

"It's so wet." Naruto sighed gloomily as he looked up into the pouring sky.

Sakura shivered, "I'm completely soaked now! I really need to change into something dry."

Sakura headed off into the tent for a moment. Only a few seconds later, a loud shriek emitted from the tent and she ran back outside, looking very flustered.

"Why is there water all over my clothes bag, the sleeping bags, and everything else in the tent?"

Kakashi walked over to the tent to inspect it. "Alright, who left the screen window open on the tent?"

A look of fear, guilt, and shock crossed Naruto's face for an instant before he quickly screwed up his face to look as innocent as possible. Everyone's gaze still turned towards Naruto though.

"…It was hot in that tent last night, okay? I had to open the screen window to get the fresh air in!" Naruto cried as he threw his hands up in the air.

"I can't believe I didn't notice that this morning when I woke up!" Sakura cried.

"Yeah. You're sure stupid." Sasuke nodded.

Sakura stared at Sasuke before she began to cry.

Kakashi sighed, "Alright, I can see that we're cold, we're wet, we're tired, frustrated, and apparently rather smelly according to someone here," he glanced at Sakura at the last statement.

"But you guys really do stink!" Sakura defended.

"And I don't think that this rain is going to stop anytime soon, and with one tent already leaking, it's probably best that we head back to Konoha now before anyone gets sick." Kakashi concluded.

"Yes! Let's do that!" Sakura beamed.

"Sounds like the best plan I've heard on this whole damn trip." Sasuke nodded.

"What? But we still have a whole day and night left! We can't let a little rain stop us! We're ninjas! We can take on anything!" Naruto cried, raising his fist into the air.

"Shut up, Naruto!" Sakura ordered, quickly smacking her hand over Naruto's mouth. "This is our one chance to get back home where it's sunnier, warmer, and most importantly, CLEANER!"

Kakashi shook his head, "Sorry Naruto, but it looks like the votes are against staying here, and so is the weather."

"B-but-"

"Don't worry. We can always come back next year."

"But you said we couldn't because we'd never get another chance like this again!" Naruto reminded him.

"Right...I did say that, didn't I." Kakashi sighed. "Well, it was fun while it lasted, but Sakura and Sasuke really aren't very happy here, and I don't think you'll be very happy either when you have to sleep in a wet, cold sleeping bag tonight and wake up, freezing and sick the next day. It's better if we just head back now while it's light out."

Naruto looked at his sensei in utter disappointment and disbelief.

"Sakura and Sasuke have already put their stuff in Michael and they're taking down the tent now. Go help them out." Kakashi ordered.

Naruto nodded and reluctantly went to help take down the tent with Sakura and Sasuke.

Within 10 minutes, everything had been packed into Michael. Team 7 hopped in as the rain poured down even harder. Kakashi started the vehicle and drove out of the campsite, Naruto looking longingly out the back window.

They drove down the path, passing Gai and his team, and then drove past the crazy old hobo man and his equally crazy old dog.

"We sure met some really weird campers here!" Naruto piped up.

"Well duh! Only weird people think of coming to a place named 'Camp Death'." Sasuke scowled as he glared accusingly at Kakashi.

"Come on, Sasuke. You have to admit that this trip was at least a little fun for you." Kakashi smiled.

"Yeah, it was great!" Naruto said.

"I suppose it was okay." Sasuke replied.

"The best part was knowing that it was finally over and knowing that I get to go home and have a shower and finally do my hair properly!" Sakura grinned.

"Girls..." Kakashi sighed inwardly.

"I don't see why we have to pull out so early just because of the rain though!" Naruto pressed on.

"Well, we suck like that I suppose." Kakashi replied.

"Yeah, we suck!" Sakura agreed.

"We suck! We suck!" Naruto chanted.

They stupidly laughed for a moment.

"You know, I do feel like that we really do suck now." Sakura abruptly cut in.

"Yeah, I do feel kind of bad now..." Naruto agreed.

Kakashi nodded, "Yeah...let's stop now."

"Yeah…"

Sasuke scowled as he folded his arms across his chest, knowing that he would have to sit and listen to 4 hours of their useless chatter with no music device to drown their babbling out.

They drove on for a while before something brown suddenly jumped out in front of them. Before Kakashi could fully veer away, there was a loud 'thump'. Kakashi quickly slammed on the brakes and came to an abrupt stop.

"What was that?" Naruto cried.

Kakashi quickly hopped out of the vehicle, followed by Sakura and Naruto. They looked at the front of the vehicle to find a deer halfway under the wheels.

"Uh-oh. Looks like we've hit a deer." Kakashi sighed.

"Woah! That was overkill, sensei!" Naruto cried.

"How could you?" Sakura cried angrily. "It was bad enough with the fish and the rabbits, but a deer?"

"Sakura get over that already!" Kakashi scolded. "I honestly didn't want to hit the deer. I couldn't stop in time to avoid hitting it. These things happen on the road, you know. At least it died quickly."

Sakura nodded, tears welling up in her eyes. The three shinobi fell silent for a moment.

"Hey sensei! You should take that deer back to Konoha, mount its head on your wall, and lie to everyone that you shot it on a hunting trip!" Naruto piped up, breaking the silence.

This earned a whack on the head from both Sakura and Kakashi's fists.

Kakashi took the deer's body and put it near the bushes. Sakura, Kakashi, and Naruto hopped back into the car where Sasuke waited.

"So what happened?" Sasuke asked.

"Not telling you!" Naruto replied, sticking his tongue out at Sasuke.

"We hit a deer. Nothing to get to excited about." Kakashi replied.

Sasuke said nothing as he shut his eyes and leaned back into his seat.

They drove on in silence for the next couple of hours before stopping off (to Naruto's delight) at a ramen shop to have their lunch there. They made it back to Konoha before nightfall, all very dirty and smelly compared to all of the other shinobi in Konoha. Naruto was the dirtiest and had a grin plastered to his face. Sasuke still had a sore foot and wore a scowl on his face. Sakura had a tired look on her face and had dirty, tangled hair that she promised herself that she would wash and treat with great care. Kakashi was severely sun burnt on the exposed quarter of his face and his hair was full of twigs and leaves, making it look like a bird's nest.

"That was a great trip! Thanks for taking us, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto grinned.

"Yeah, thanks!" Sakura briefly smiled before she quickly dashed off towards her house, probably to take her shower.

Sasuke said nothing and walked off towards his house, lugging his gear behind him.

Naruto glanced at Kakashi for a moment before he gasped, pointing at his sensei's hair.

"D-did I just see a squirrel move around in your hair?"

"A what? Oh, maybe. I don't know. I'm too tired to care." Kakashi replied.

Naruto took his camping gear and smiled, "Well, thanks again for the awesome camping tip! We should really do it again sometime! See you later!"

Naruto scampered off to his place as Kakashi took his gear and proceeded to his place, tired but smiling as some passing-by shinobi stared at Kakashi's sunburned face and squirrel-infested hair.

_Not to be continued...  
(In other words, it's The End, fools.)_

I hope that ending wasn't too abrupt and horrible. (That's pretty much how my camping trip ended up last year with the rain suddenly dumping on us and somebody "smartly" leaving the screen window open on the tent, letting the water pour in.)

I'm thinking of writing another camping-themed Naruto fanfic, but with Yondaime, Obito, Kakashi, and Rin this time, so it will almost like a prequel to this fanfic. (Hopefully you've all read the Kakashi Gaiden part of the Naruto manga and know who those characters I mentioned above are.) All your questions will be answered, such as; Did Team Yondaime really play Chubby Bunny every night? How did Kakashi break that old man's boat anyways? Does the Sasquatch really exist? And exactly how insane is the author? The story will probably be shorter, but not too short. It might end up being longer for all I know, but I sure hope not. So what do you guys think? Should I write it? Please tell me if I should or shouldn't, and you can give me ideas too if you wish.

So how did you find this fanfic? I'd love to hear your comments and criticism, and feel free to babble on. Those who have never reviewed for this story, now's the time to do it...please? I would appreciate it very much.  
Thank you so much for all of the reviews, as they really inspired me. Many thanks, and I hoped you enjoyed this fanfic as much as I enjoyed writing it!

…You can review one more time, right? C'mon, you know you want to.


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